


Cat's Cradle

by jiemae



Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Development, Character Study, F/M, Half-Massacre AU, Major Original Character(s), Minor Original Character(s), Romantic Subplot, Self-Insert, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2018-08-12 11:48:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 162,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7933462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jiemae/pseuds/jiemae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By stone and by sky, there had never been anything she could do to save herself. Subjected to becoming a beast at the age of two, Yugito Nii grew up being watched and grew up being tested—and she's sick of it. More than that, she knows that if she doesn't do anything then she'll end up dead in a plot to destroy the world. No way in hell will she let that happen, not when she's just found something to live for.</p><p>(The AO3 mirror to the same story on fanfiction.net//Faster updates there!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One Life Wasted

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of a self-insert but like all of my stories, not. Just an OC with a few of my personality aspects with a past life to remember that affects her actions in the story. Oh, and she ended up in Yugito's body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first part of this story (chapters 1-3-ish) are kind of bleh mostly cause I had no idea what I was doing.
> 
> The illustration is something I commissioned from @luciasatalina (on tumblr)

* * *

 

**One Life Wasted**

* * *

The only thing— _person_ —she needed to look out for was herself. That was it.

Mostly because they made that first priority the very second they decided to shove a gigantic mass of chakra into a two year old baby. Fuck that. Fuck them. Fuck this entire _village—_ they only ever care about power, after all. The military strength, the economy, the _kekkei genkai._ Everything else was unimportant and mere nuisances at best. Like the fact that a two year old girl got tossed from shinobi family to shinobi family, carefully trained and _watched_ —always watched—right up until she graduated with top marks at the age of eight. Losing any and all traces of family as soon as they were formed.

It was their way of preparing her, she supposed.

Simply a nuisance.

Just like how that eight year old soon grew into a woman, into someone 'valued' by her village and her coworkers for the 'fine' work she did. A murderer, a _serial_ killer, all because she did her work right—they might have killed her if not, if she instead turned out to be a dud. But that was neither here nor there.

Because, it was _simply a nuisance_.

She supposed that if she hadn't known—if those memories had not been there—she would have very well fallen prey to the idea of loyalty that all of her acquaintances found themselves ailed with. As if it were the most important thing in the world; _loyalty_. The most deadly, perhaps, but not the most important, that much was clear to her.

Only Yugito seemed to be privy to the secret, that pride and trust in the village was sorely misplaced. After all, who the hell decides to trust a place that stored a demon inside of a two year old? Who fucking got away with that bullshit? Clearly every single village and especially hers.

So yes, she had been bred for this, had known her entire life that her parents had been nameless unknowns who had most likely been paid handsomely for their genetics. It was such a plus, wasn't it, to be beautiful and broken from the very start. It never helped matters that they took the very fact and ran with the idea, forcing Yugito to become...

Yugito had become a monster, this much was certain by the time she had turned twenty-two years old.

But that fact was not something that had been set into a stone carving.

After all, she was going to leave and she was going to change.

Then no one could ever make her kill again.

* * *

Her plan unraveled with each step she took that morning, smiling at everyone she saw and giving pleasant exchanges with the children in the park. Feeding a bit of the stray dogs and cats—they were more alike to her than anyone would think—and ducking into the hospital to visit her injured teammates and leaving flowers and notes if she could. Every day things that Yugito had taken to doing any time she had a spare moment. Things she _had to do_ so that they didn't hate her.

Every day that she spent inside the village, all that energy she had thrown towards being accepted but it had all been so stupid of her. Monsters don't get accepted; they become tolerated.

She just hadn't wanted to face reality.

Now she stood in the apartment she had used to love but would never come visit again.

"Are you okay?" Shī asked, reaching his hand out to touch her arm, right before he pulled away at the last second. Still, his expression never changed and his worried gaze continued to glance over Yugito's face like he was her brother, like how she had used to dream of when she was younger. Having a brother like him would have been nice after all, and it wasn't as if they didn't already look like twins. But that resemblance had more to do with chance and less to do with what was fact.

He could never be her brother, no more than she could ever have a family.

"Yes, I'm fine," Yugito said softly, unable to turn her voice into a harsh bite. She looked away from him then, far too aware of her weaknesses around him. He couldn't know. Working so closely with Kirābī and Ay, there was not a doubt in her mind that her leaving would simply be reported by him. After all, he'd grown into a fine little worker bee, endlessly and tirelessly working. Too much to notice that this had been something she'd been planning for an entire year, and too much to notice how very little they saw each other the more time had passed.

Soon they would only be strangers.

 _I can live with that_ , she thought.

 **But do you want to?** Matatabi asked and she could say nothing.

She didn't exactly know how she wanted to live after all. Being a kunoichi had stolen that from her. You don't live as a shinobi but you sure as hell die as one. And she didn't want that. When everything was all said and done, Yugito Nii wanted to _live_ and she couldn't live in the village that would be too late to save her.

The Akatsuki was coming for her soon.

 _I want a chance_ , she told the mass of chakra inside her.

The Two-Tails laughed.

**There were never any for you to start off with, child. But you can still free me, you can let me destroy our enemies.**

_These people are not our enemies, Matatabi-san,_ Yugito told the beast, _and I will no longer bring more death. There is already enough of it without me._

 **So hopeful you are, so sweet, but this will only fail the people you love,** Matatabi seemed to purr out, gloating, **They need you to kill, it was why you were born in the first place. Why you have been used for so long. There is no use in fighting it, they will eventually find you. They always did find me.**

"I'm human," Yugito whispered before she could catch herself. Then she looked into Shī's worried eyes and felt everything in her continue to crack further.

**You are a sacrifice.**

_There is nothing more I can give._

Inside, even as she forced herself to smile at the man she had once envisioned loving forever, Yugito spoke again to him, for the last time, "I'm human, sometimes I have an off day, y'know? I'll be better for the mission tomorrow."

 _"_ If you say so, Yugito-san," he said, still the perfect image of distance even after so long of knowing each other.

Everyone one is always so separate. Why is that? Why couldn't she ever close the gap with _anyone_? So alone, always so alone and there was no end to it. She just wanted it to end, for someone to speak to her and try to understand.

 **When they find you, they will hurt you. They will remove me and they will kill you. Defecting will not be forgiven and I do not care for a new container** _ **,**_ the cat muttered, but there's nothing the tailed beast can do that will change her mind.

"I need to go water the plants at home," Yugito excused herself with a smile, turning towards the door before tossing over a quick, "Don't be late tomorrow, Shī-san!"

"Never am," he called back.

**It isn't like you to lie, human.**

_I need to keep us safe_ , is all Yugito lets herself respond with.

Then she left.

* * *

She couldn't leave. She didn't leave. She was a coward of the worst sort.

But no matter what the village had done to her, sealing terrors within her and forcing her to—don't think, don't _think—_ change herself, Yugito loved them, the people she had depended on for missions, to have her back and to respect her. They didn't respect a jinchūriki but they respected _her_ and she had worked so _hard_ for that.

"I can't throw that away," she realized numbly as she sat in the solitude of her lonely apartment, "I'm going to die because I'm too afraid, Matatabi-san, and you'll be forced from me and I won't be able to protect you from them. The Ten-Tails will be formed..."

 **Tell your humans,** Matatabi suggested, voice not unkind, **they will soon find the threat of the Akatsuki for themselves.**

"They won't believe me," she murmured with a beaten sigh, her shoulders slumping forward as she pawed at the stray string on her purple kimono, "they wouldn't believe in such a thing. I'll be shunned for speaking about my past."

She knew that even the Two-Tails hadn't believed in her in most cases, not until the cat saw her memories, not until Yugito had opened herself up _so much_. She had only done it the once, telling the entire truth and the cat demon had helped her with the nightmares, keeping them at bay for her like a dream eater. But she had never dared to do it again and there was no one that Yugito trusted more than the demon within her.

Matatabi once hated her, just like all the others, but that's okay because Yugito hated the mass of chakra at one point in time too.

They were both similar in many painful ways.

Most painful was the biting seclusion and though they had each other, it was not the same as having someone physically within reach. She could only imagine what it must be like for the bijū, how lonely things must be to forever be lodged within a seal and with no real way to affect the real world. She was luckier than Matatabi and the cat perhaps hated her most for that though the beast had never said anything to her about it.

"I just want to find a home," Yugito finally said aloud, her voice hoarse as she spoke words she'd never dared to say out loud before, "at least before I die I want...someone to accept me completely as I am."

 **I believe that is something we all wish for, Yugito-san** , Matatabi whispered in her mind softly, **and you still have a chance for it. All stray cats have only that, kitten**.

"But haven't I just wasted mine?" Yugito asked bleakly, "Everyone is still so far away here..."

 **In your memories, the ones I have watched, they came for you** , the cat murmured, **they were just too late to help you.**

Too late. Yes, always too late when it counted.

"I will be killed by two people who cannot die, the immortal duo," her voice was dark and without humor, "and they will have learned from my death so that Kirābī is safe. Why is that? Why is that always the case with them? Why did they name me second? It doesn't matter if they come after me, it is not in them to love me."

She was so confused about it and the fear was worst of all.

They'd done this to her; they'd stolen her will the moment she was two years old and could not fight back. An innocent in the grand scheme of things being made as the human sacrifice to tame the beast and harness the power of it. But she was no martyr and never would be seen as one for everything she had given up in her life.

She'd let her pride, her identity be beaten and slashed until it nearly broke to pieces that could not be reformed. Then she'd picked it all back up again, attempting to fix the pain that would never cease. She was not a pot remade to be beautiful with golden lacquer, not more beautiful for having been broken. No, instead she was the weight of a soul that had claws dug so deeply within that she could not escape.

She wanted to run, so desperately wanted to take the leap that would put her out of Kumogakure's sight but...

They had done their job well. She had no loyalty to speak of but the fear was too strong to deny. They would consume her, tear her to shreds to regain the bijū and she could not live without the cat's support any longer. Her soul was a dim one, layer by layer peeled away by fear and making her life all the more precarious. But with each piece of her lost, each time she could not fix herself as good as the last, she was made to be stripped of everything that made her human.

They had made her into what she had feared most as a child who could not understand the nightmare she could not wake up from.

A monster.

They always one like this, didn't they? They'd conditioned her too well. A slave to orders until her last breath. Like always.

She, tomorrow, would kill again, with every vow of hers shattering only to resonate with the lies that passed her cherry red lips.

Yugito wondered, if she died, if she would turn into a true monster, a bakeneko just like the one she could not escape from.

* * *

She was laughing at a joke her teammate, Majime, was saying to her about the hairball flames she produced. It wasn't funny.

For reasons unknown to her, probably via some sort of connection with Matatabi, Yugito was a whole lot like a cat. She loved tekkadon and milk, hated spicy foods with a finicky tongue, and slept usually in high places if she could help it. Yugito was aware of this, perfectly in the know that she was a little strange. She, however, didn't like people to bring it up so nonchalantly.

_"Haha, you really are like a cat! You even cough up hairballs!"_

She could light him on fire with one of her mouses for such disrespect.

Still, Yugito hated confrontation more than she hated anything else and so she merely laughed as if she found it even subtly funny. Shī looked at her with knowing eyes, however, and gave a nudge to Majime.

Named aptly and as earnest to please as he was, the jōnin promptly got the message and shut the hell up. Though he was still smiling at her, dark eyes trying to read her expressions. A kenjutsu specialist and with a nice taijutsu style, he was just the sort of teammate that Yugito was terrible at performing with. The overlap of their skills made their work a little bit strange. With her claws she could easily fight as well, if not better, than Majime. It always confused her when she went on a mission with him, and the Raikage often placed them on the same squad.

It confused her.

But more than that, Yugito tried more to focus on the fact that she was on a B-rank that she could have gone in alone on. A decent strategist and with how hard she had worked to be deadly in a battle, Yugito had done a whole lot more solos than most people her age. She was elite, a name feared in the Bingo Books as countless souls were lost when they came into contact with her. She wanted to retire already but that was unheard of for jinchūriki. She was twenty-two, so young and with so much more potential for the wreckage of the world.

They were in the Land of Fire.

It always made her skin itch to be so close to what would one day be the main stage of so much devastation. Too far away to make a difference and yet close enough to feel the waves. She had been fifteen when she'd heard news of the Yondaime Hokage's death. She'd felt the terror of realizing those dreams had much more merit than otherwise. She could do nothing to stop it, nothing to help the boy who would group up as lonely as she had.

She hated to be so close to Konohagakure, the temptation to slip into the village and speak with him being all the more strong. Yugito had no clue what she'd actually say to him if she even could—.

Yugito Nii was suddenly being jerked out of her thoughts, her body stopping in motion as she skidded to a stop. Her nails grew to keep her from losing her balance. She registered none of that. Instead, inwardly, she had the oddest sensation of falling...

And then she blinked.

"What is this?" she asked as everything echoed, her feet stepping over still water. Everything had changed when she hadn't been looking. No longer was she surrounded by the unnaturally large Konoha trees, instead she was in a spacious plane of existence. The sky was less of that and more of a reflection of everything else, blue as the water beneath her feet. It was disorienting and she forced herself to look away.

" **You have spoken with** **Kirābī** **-san and the** **Eight-Tails** **here, once before** ," Matatabi announced and Yugito looked into a vibrant emerald green eye before swiveling to see the moonlight yellow one blink. The Two-Tails was _huge_ , and Yugito had never been more stunned. Beautiful blue flames flitted around the cat, licking the air hungrily. Matatabi looked tense enough to pounce.

"The link then?" Yugito asked, despite everything, in awe of what she was seeing before her eyes, "You've taken me into the link?"

" **You wanted to speak with the Kyūbi's container, did you not?** " Matatabi's forked tail swiveled in the air and without further ado, the cat settled itself down as if for a long wait. " **My sibling can be difficult to deal with but I have spoken of you to the others, as well as I have been able to at least. They're seals restrict them quite a bit and well, the Uzumaki certainly knew what they were doing when they imprisoned Kurama-san. We may have to be patient for the arriv—** "

The cat was cut off by a shout, a boisterous one that could have only been from a child.

Yugito whirled around just in time to see a small blond haired boy clambering off a very, very _large_ fox. He looked confused but with excitement and intrigue to keep him from freaking out. He slipped to the water and for a second she worried that he would fall through and drown. Instead, he stuck the landing and stood triumphantly.

"I can walk on water, 'ttebayo!" Naruto cheered as he bumped his fist in the air, "Coolest dream ever, 'ttebayo!"

"Naruto!" Yugito yelled without thinking, then she stumbled back as soon as his eyes landed on her. It was almost eerie to see his face in person. Similar enough to the boy in her dreams but with a lot more detail, it kept her standing still in shock. The markings on his face, the carefree grin and those flashing blue eyes. He looked just as ready to take on the world as he had been in the manga books and anime.

She felt ill all over again.

"Ah? Who are you, 'ttebayo?" Naruto asked and she flinched. "You're dressed like...like a Kumo-nin! Wah, oh no, I'll beat you up!"

Suddenly, before she could catch the breath that had escaped her in her time of need, the boy was abruptly launching himself at her with a fierce battle cry. Yugito didn't move and when he came up to punch her in the gut, she couldn't help herself. She slipped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug.

"What the hell, lady?" Naruto squirmed in her grasp and she pulled away long enough to see his face turning red. With a breathy laugh, she only clung on tighter. Like a child that had lost everything, grasping at the threads that lingered. She didn't want him to be snatched away.

"My name is Yugito Nii," she said softly, shifting to meet his wide eyed gaze, "and I'm like you. Kind of. I _am_ from Kumogakure but we don't have to be enemies. I think, I think you understand that though, better than many others. Or," she gazed at his bewildered expression, "you will learn."

"What do you mean by that, 'ttebayo!?" Naruto demanded to know, to be heard. Her hands slipped from his shoulders as she gave him a sly smile.

"They've been keeping secrets from you, the reasons why the people seem to hate you," Yugito went on, though she wasn't sure if she should. She blinked at him, "You're a seven year old kitten, aren't you?"

Naruto gasped, moving backwards in shock, "How'd ya know?"

"Never mind that, Naruto-kun," Yugito grinned, "we don't have much time together. I'm currently on a mission so I need to get back. Though, before I go..." she trailed off, her gaze unable to keep from softening as she gazed at the chubby marked cheeks. She kissed them quickly, leaving him even more confused and red in the face. Unable to hold it back, she laughed.

He stared at her accusingly but she only met his eyes as seriously as she could to make her words sink in, making herself eye level with him before she continued, "Before I go, you must know that you are _not_ a monster and no one can change that."

"What do you _mean_?" Naruto asked, sounding desperate to understand, "Tell me, 'ttebayo!"

Yugito hummed to herself instead, standing up to her full height, "We'll meet again. But, just remember, monsters are creatures that have turned their backs on their nature. Never before then. Remember yourself, believe in yourself, and you will achieve what you want most."

Then, with a quick laugh at the irony in her words, she looked at Matatabi and nodded.

Yugito left the link feeling dizzy as she felt herself come back into her body. In her ears she could still hear Naruto yelling for her to come back, to explain herself. But she had a feeling he'd only take what had happened as a dream. She almost wanted to too.

 **You gave him good advice, perhaps you should follow it?** Matatabi asked as soon as Yugito stopped feeling like she was about to fall over, her nails digging into the bark of the large tree branch beneath her.

 _I can't,_ she thought in somber reply _, I've already turned my back on my nature._

**Or, perhaps, you have yet to discover it.**

"Yugito-san?" Shī asked, shaking her shoulders as if to rouse her from her sleep. It was the first time he'd touched her since she was a teenager, still hoping for him to like her. He never would. Yugito shifted, meeting his eyes.

"I'm back," she said, blinking, "how long was I gone?"

"A few minutes," Majime said to her left, his eyes concerned as he regarded her, "what happened?"

"I'm sorry for delaying us," Yugito said instead, "We should keep moving. We're in enemy territory."

The words felt like acid on her tongue but she let them pass like all the other lies she'd told before. She was very good at it.

* * *

**One Life Wasted - End**


	2. Two (& Many) Lives Saved

  **Two ( & Many) Lives Saved**

* * *

If Yugito hadn't been so sure she wasn't going to attend the mission, she really would have read up on the mission details. But as it was, it wasn't until they were nearing the Konoha walls that she realized that she _really_ should have read up on what they were supposed to do in the first place. It was the sort of screw up that got mission demerits, the sort of thing Shī would never expect out of her.

Flushing over revealing her blunder, she instead fell into steps with Majime.

"Some mission, huh?" she murmured, waiting for him to spill his guts without revealing her intentions.

He sung like a bird, whether or not he was aware of playing into her claws. Truly earnest in what he wanted to and ready to please at a moment's notice, Majime was just the sort of teammate Yugito was usually annoyed with. But just this once she was glad she had him around, if only to have him cover up her blunders.

"I know, right?" Majime started off with a bit of a soft chuckle, "No one has ever been able to kidnap an Uchiha before. Not to mention that if we're caught, we all die and the fourth shinobi war is always around the corner, isn't it?"

"Yup," Yugito said cheerfully, "always right around the corner. Bound to happen eventually, as things go."

Then she sped up and fell more closely to Shī, recognizing him as the leader of the mission though that had been quite obvious to her from the very start. Kidnapping missions weren't often lead with such a show of force like the trio she was on, usually chūnin if the mission stakes were normal. But they weren't this time around. Sneaking into a Hidden Village was one thing, but making off with the Sharingan was an entirely different thing.

There had been _many_ attempts but never one that had ever succeeded.

But if the other Yugito had been on a mission like this, she would have normally died in the attempts to complete the mission. People who failed missions, especially the ones that would bring more power to the village, were viewed as scum and as useless. Yugito had never failed a mission, _ever_.

A first for everything, right?

Did Yugito originally fail this mission, alongside Shī?

But what circumstances stopped them from it, from being captured at failed attempts? The way Yugito saw things, only near death and a quick escape could sum things up but Kumo-nin weren't exactly the most subtle. They always left some sort of mark that they were there, whether it was intentional or not. A missing person wasn't the sort of thing most clans let slide if they had a kekkei genkai worth protecting. Then a fourth war really _would_ start.

The only obvious conclusion was that pressing matters made them call quits on the whole thing. Which had never happened in all of Yugito's life and she couldn't see it happening now. It confused her. Maybe they did succeed and nothing went wrong at all, and no one noticed anything. Did this mean Kumo might've actually had the Sharingan after all?

Shī stopped abruptly, dropping to the ground. After a slight hesitation, she followed after and landed besides him. Majime came next, coming to stand a little too close to her for comfort.

"Why have we stopped?" she asked but then she noticed. Shī and Majime both had sweat dripping down their faces and looked red in the face. Her commanding officer gave her a dry smile, keeping his breathing as far away from a pant as he could get it.

Yugito was completely fine, all things considered on her end of things.

"We aren't like the jinchūriki," Shī told her gently, "Majime-san and I will have to take a break after all the travel we've done today."

 _Bad planning_ , she thought in her head but didn't say out loud. It would have been better if they'd taken more breaks before they ended up in enemy territory, though Shī probably realized this already and was quickly regretting overestimating himself. He was so serious that sometimes it was difficult to realize when he'd made a mistake. That didn't change the facts though, and one of the major one was they were _not_ safe. It made her more anxious than she'd like to say. While she could kill shinobi in relative ease, she never liked to do it and would have really rather kept going, complete the mission, then get out. No kills. Stamina be damned.

Yugito shook her head, "Permission to voice an idea, sir?"

"Permission granted," he said, dark eyes glinting with curiosity. She never really took initiative like this on regular missions when she wasn't leading them. Yugito was too self-conscious of herself, worried she might come off as silly if she spoke too long and especially of her ideas.

"It might be best if I went on ahead to scout and assess the situation we'll be entering," she mumbled, hating the way her cheeks heat up with both of her teammate's gaze on her. Yugito hated having attention on her, liked much more to be shadow than anything else. At least on missions, that is.

"Is that all?" Shī asked and she blinked.

"And," she dared to continue, "I believe it's best for the two of you to henge into civilians. We can't afford to be recognized as Kumo-nin and I believe one of us will suffice to enter the Uchiha clan compound and pick the best target. Others might unknowingly get in the way."

"I agree," he said, and gone were the smiles of before. On missions, he always changed like this, his face growing darker and thoughtful. Serious and unwavering. The sort of shinobi who would do anything to succeed at a mission. He was younger than her by two years, a fact she often forgot in reaction to whenever she had ended up on a team with him.

Shī was her friend most days, but on a mission he was none of that. He was only what the mission allowed him to be and this time he was her commanding officer.

After a moment of silence, Shī looked at her, "I believe you will be the best option to sneak in and retrieve the Sharingan. You're better at chakra suppression against sensors, have the most silent approach to things, and have the stamina to outrun any pursuers. Majime-san and I will head into the village as civilians to aid you if the circumstances call for it but mostly we'll be mapping out exit strategies. Meet up with us before you attempt anything, Yugito-san."

"Understood," she said, and just because she felt better doing it, she pulled up her the bandanna around her neck and retied it to cover her lower face. This was her mission ritual, to cover up her identity and to hide the expression that made her who she was. Made her actions feel less like a reflection on who she was as a person and more so on the tool of destruction she had become.

While she was at it, she re-tied her hair to fix at a higher position, a long hanging ponytail that lay a comforting weight against her back. Then, only after reshifting her clothing, she was off.

* * *

She knew why the Kumo-nin never got that Sharingan the moment she entered the Uchiha clan. She usually tried to forget the details of her foreknowledge, especially when they hadn't pertained to her. Acutely, she could recall other details like the men who would eventually kill her, much vibrantly than she could events like the one she had just walked into.

Yugito had a strong sense of smell, just like her hearing and eyesight were better than the norm as well. She could smell the death and blood in the air before she could smell anything else. Shifting through them all, she was surprised to realize that she was in the more civilian-esque part of the clan. Burning food mixed in with piss and shit. Not a pleasant smell, making her more glad to have her bandanna tied so closely to her face.

Any other soul would have turned back. She _should_ have turned back, should have went back to Shī and told him upfront that the Sharingan wouldn't be viable to steal when it was being expunged so thoroughly. The Uchiha Clan Massacre.

She had just fucking walked into it.

Walking more quietly than she ever had before, she progressed through the long streets, strewn both in bodies and ruined store fronts, fruit and jewelry stands smashed to pieces. She kept going, wrinkling her nose before listening for the sounds of struggle.

Yugito was oddly fascinated, less afraid than she would have expected out of herself. Cats themselves weren't very brave.

To add to the heavy air, the stuffy heat of the slowly setting sun, death was everywhere she looked. It was inescapable. The bodies were all killed the same way. It wasn't painful looking, to see most of them with their throats cut. Itachi didn't draw the kills out, didn't enjoy the death any more than she did. It was clear and obvious to see and in the face of all that loss, Yugito was shaking.

Then she stilled, her sensitive ears picking up the sounds of clashing metal.

Suppressing her chakra and making for the roofs, Yugito ignored the sights and smells as she worked to pinpoint where the source of sound was coming from. It wasn't difficult, everywhere else being eerily quiet for a place that was meant to look _alive_.

She neared the fight just as it ended, one dark haired form giving the final blow in the form of a stab to the heart. The victim fell with a curse on his lips, and in all of that, Yugito was beginning to be afraid. If he so much as looked up, he could see her. Itachi Uchiha, the destroyer of his clan and martyr for Konohagakure, an ANBU who understood "necessary" yet morally absent tasks and did them with no complaint.

The one who fucked with his brother's head so much, he lost any chance at being whole and happy.

Yugito _never_ thought she'd be this close to him.

She should leave. She _really_ should leave.

She didn't.

Instead, as he relentlessly found his next victim, Yugito found herself moving forward.

Swinging into the fight and chastising herself over her stupidity, she blocked a kunai he'd sent hurtling towards a woman who let out an ear piercing scream. She pointedly _did not_ meet Itachi's eyes, and instead relied on all of her other senses to guide herself as she found herself in a deadly dance with the man that would one day become involved with a group of criminals that would one day _kill her_.

Then they were at a stand still, and she noticed that there were others joining her and in a blink of an eye she realized that they were _trying_ to kill her too. She could understand, really, that people would come close to the fight, see her Kumo-nin jōnin attire and _assume_ she was the bad news. But it was rather irritating, more so than anything else and she was fucking _everything_ up.

This could make her lose her rank, this could ruin everything she'd fought so hard to achieve.

She didn't even know _why_ she was trying to stop Itachi, only that she had her claws out and she was doing everything she could to deflect and block the sudden spray of kunai and shuriken. So _damn_ irritating.

Yugito could see the debriefing in her head now.

" _Why did you do it? Why did you not just head for your CO and inform him of the situation."_ They would ask.

" _He was killing them all too fast,_ " she'd say in place of an actual reason, and then she'd continue to spill bullshit right out from her lips, _"if the mission were to succeed, we need the Sharingan to_ exist _."_

Good point, she thought, but not good enough.

This was supposed to be a B-rank. It should have _totally_ been an S with this much trouble.

Yugito deflected the kunai with her nails, but she was growing weary. While she had magnificent stamina, seconded only to Kirābī with their jinchūriki boost, she was slowly nearing the point in which she would say fuck it all and unleash a cloak. That would show them to mess with her.

Then she realized that would be suicidal. She was in the _Uchiha_ clan compound. Also known as home of the freaking Sharingan and the very thing that could control Matatabi. Yugito didn't even control the cat beast within her, they had a bit of a friendship thing going on that was hard to explain. Either way, Yugito couldn't risk them discovering what she was, and in turn, putting the Two-Tails at risk.

With a grunted out huff of air, Yugito, with a burst of speed that would leave her feeling sore to the brink of figuratively dying, jumped forward, hand snaking out to grab hold of Itachi's collar. She didn't look at his face, didn't have to know he was surprised. She was sure he saw it all with his eyes, knew what she was doing. He was probably more confused on why she was touching him in such a way, when she really should have been trying to stab him to death. Yugito agreed with this notion, it would really be better to be gutting him. Been awhile since the last time she'd done it.

But she'd spent the majority of a week in trying to scrape blood out of her nails and didn't really like the idea of doing it again. That was why she didn't go with that option, _of course_. Hah.

Instead of going the smart route to end a fight, she pumped enough chakra into her arm to break both boulders of massive size and her knuckles, then she swung. It wasn't a killing blow, but if she was going to try and do this, she knew she needed to pack enough brute force into the hit that it was _certain_ to incapacitate him. He tried to dodge, of course, but her hold on him was too strong and he only managed to move which side of his face she was about to bludgeon. As soon as her fist connected and she had enough control to pull back on the chakra at the last second, he went slack in her arms. Along with that, she had a lucky kunai lodged in her back (oh joy) and she was getting _really_ pissed off.

"Mission accomplished," she whispered, rather bitterly, before hefting him into her arms to carry. Dodging as quickly as she could the sudden round of weaponry being slugged at her, Yugito took to the roofs once more. She was rather aware of being followed by angrily shouting Uchiha but she had a feeling that none of them were the advanced shinobi forces of the clan. Mostly because they sucked at throwing.

Which made her lucky, she supposed, but only marginally so that she'd caught Itachi still working on slaughtering the civilian side of his clan. But she knew it wouldn't last. It was only a matter of time before the rest of Konoha heard about what happened. Kumo would be readily blamed and then, welp, then her actions would certainly start the Fourth Shinobi World War. But on the bright side, she would have completed the whole Sharingan mission. Score on that one.

Her chakra was circulating too fast, almost painfully so but it was helping her carry Itachi and move as quickly as she was. Inuzuka nin-ken would be able to easily locate her, however, if they were sent on a retrieval mission to help track Itachi down.

She wondered if she'd just saved Itachi from being known as a murderer in his clan. Realistically, most of those deaths would be blamed on her. Their fight would only make the story show that he was valiantly trying to defend them from her. Anyone who had witnessed Itachi's actions would rewrite what they'd seen to better fit the story. No one liked to know that one of their own had betrayed them.

It was irritating, to say the least.

She needed to reach Shī still, tell him everything. Though he'd had probably already heard of it by now.

Intruder at the Uchiha clan compound, hostage situation, etc, etc.

Yugito didn't know why she felt happy about that. But then, as her actions came back to her and she looked down on the face of a teenage boy ready to destroy his family for the greater "good", she realized something very important. Itachi Uchiha was apart of the Akatsuki. She'd just diverted that from happening entirely.

Or had she? She couldn't be sure, not yet, but at the very least she had gotten a few lives spared today. All in a day's work.

 _Itachi didn't work alone_ , a sudden, niggling thought wedged its way through. Yugito stopped entirely, her nails reaching out to steady her before she fell off of the roof of a house just within the view of the wall. There was silence where she was.

And then, on instinct alone, she ducked down into the space between the building she'd previously been on and a slightly larger one. She chewed at her lip with her slightly sharpened teeth, too nervous and anxious to keep herself from mangling her usually perfectly reddened lips. Itachi was stirring now, making her suck in a breath and exhaling an exasperated huff quickly after.

"Don't do this to me," she told his shifting form, "you're the one that's fucking up your life, now I'm only helping make the best of it so..." she trailed off, unsure why she'd even been speaking in the first place.

Stupid, stupid.

She didn't have the sealing scrolls that Shī had with him, the ones intended to hold organic life. Other scrolls would make him suffocate from the lack of air and it wasn't as if they were the most common type of scroll. Plenty of kidnapping missions were led on without them.

Yeah, and they didn't have to deal with an _entire Hidden Village_ coming after her for the goddamn Sharingan. It was starting to look like more trouble than it was worth.

 **Can't go back now, you've already wasted one of your lives** , Matatabi reminded her.

Yugito didn't reply.

"Cats have nine lives," she whispered to herself instead. _Don't give up_ , in other words.

She needed to see this through, like everything else she'd done in her life. Shinobi Code of Conduct, rule #23: Once a mission is started, there is no backing away. See it through to the end.

Then the pain caught up to her.

Fractured knuckles from overreaching how much chakra she could channel into them, (oh right) kunai to the back that was making everything particularly difficult for her breathing, and a stirring Uchiha that was sure to kill her for interrupting him. Fun times were ahead of her.

But not only that, the Uchiha were not safe yet.

Vague as the memories were at this point, she could recall enough to know who it was. Obito Uchiha and he had the goddamn Kamui part of his Mangekyō Sharingan down pat. She loathed him in that instance, for adding continued complications to an already messy situation.

"I'm not a hero," she sighed out softly, looking back at the boy in her arms.

Always, always, she was more afraid for herself. She'd never let herself fear for others. They usually had the advantage of people that actually cared. Yugito didn't. She was alone. Not even being a cousin to the Kage meant that she had close family, no one close enough to chide her for endangering herself needlessly. No one cared enough about her to miss _her_ , to mourn _her_ loss. So she had always looked out for herself, and for Matatabi if she could, but mostly for herself.

But right then, staring at the deadly killer in her arms, in realizing that she could actually make a difference, something in Yugito stirred.

"I'm going to try to be one though," she whispered, a small hidden gracing her lips.

 _Matatabi-san, you'll need to stay out of this. Please keep your chakra from mixing with mine,_ Yugito told the cat inside of her.

 **Very well. Be careful, kitten** , Matatabi said, which was as close to a proclamation of friendship the chakra beast had ever managed out.

Yugito accepted it with a small smile.

"I need to get to Shī-san," she said out loud, more for the sake of clearing and organizing her thoughts. "Or," she continued, thinking, "he can come to me. Real quick, help me send out a flash of your chakra, enough for him to sense it."

Matatabi readily complied, Yugito's entire body being flooded with the warm, foreign chakra that often times mingled with her own. At one point it had been unpleasant, but now it was something she welcomed in her coils. With it she could do incredible things.

Things that weren't as boring as flaring their mixed chakra. Once, twice, three times she did it. Then she released the Two-Tails's chakra and prayed that the one who found her wouldn't be an enemy. She needed to move now, that much was clear. He could easily track her chakra in the area once he arrived. Shī was, after all, one of the best sensor nin in all of Kumogakure—and he knew her chakra quite well.

With Itachi painfully being held in her already sore arms, she forced her hands to obey in forming what genjustu she could muster up in that moment. Enough that if she stepped out from the alley she wouldn't be assaulted as an enemy ninja. It wasn't her forte exactly but she had earned her jōnin promotion for a reason and could at least manage a genjustu that made her blur before the eyes.

Things, however, are never that easy.

First, as she was going to step out and try to act as nonchalantly as possible with an Uchiha in her arms and a _kunai in her back_ , blue eyes stared up at her in silent surprise and for the second time that day she met Naruto Uzumaki.

Oh, fuck. _Not_ what she needed _._

"Listen, Naruto," she said, dropping all pretense and the temptation to add 'chan' to his name, she kneeled before him and stared into his eyes, her muscles protesting all the while, "I'm trying to be a hero here. Do you understand? Bad things are happening and I was close enough by that I could do something to help, got it?" she asked, desperate for him to understand.

"Why do you have Sasuke-teme's brother in your arms?" Naruto asked, peering closer to get a better look at the Uchiha in her grip. His eyes widened upon seeing the nasty swollen bruise already forming on the left side of the ANBU captain's face. "What did you _do_ to him 'ttebayo? Is that why a bunch of people are freaking out? They said something about an invasion, Nee-san. Is that _you_ , 'ttebayo?"

She was torn by being touched for him to call her older sister but also worried that any second he was going to yell out that he'd caught her. Shit, she _really_ needed to get out of the alley. Any second a shinobi brave enough to face a bijū was going to enter in the picture and she'd be _dead_.

 _Shī, hurry up!_ She snapped in her head but pulled down her bandanna to show Naruto her full face.

"It isn't me, kid. Not entirely," she murmured, "some scary things are happening, things I don't really understand either. But basically, there's a man here. Terrifying. He controlled Sasuke-teme's brother into killing a bunch of people and now he wants to kill the rest of the Uchiha clan. He has a terrible dōjustu with a technique called Kamui, it makes him very, _very_ difficult to stop. Basically it allows him to bend space and time, I guess," Yugito shook her head, slightly annoyed with herself for not remembering much more than that, "I did manage to get a name, Naruto, and you should get it to the Hokage. His name is Tobi—but that's an alias, a fake name—and he plans to destroy the world. Do you understand? He'll be aligned with a group known as Akatsuki though they aren't very active yet. It's a group of S-rank missing-nin. Sasori, Deidara, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Konan, and Pein. Nagato, maybe? Uh, I don't really remember. Orochimaru was apart of it at one point too, I think," Yugito shrugged then, aware that she was probably killing Naruto with information overload.

She didn't think she'd talk so much in that entire week.

He looked flush for his part, it seemed he was actually taking her quite seriously, "O-Okay, 'ttebayo! I'll tell the Hokage!"

Just like Majime. So earnest. It was the sort of personality that was slowly growing on her.

"They may not believe you," she warned him before sighing and wincing against the pain radiating in her back, "but it's better for them to get some information now then later. Um, I'll try to contact you again like I did before, okay? But, right now, I'm in danger. I'm kind of kidnapping Sasuke-teme's brother but I'll try to get him back to Konoha once things clear up. It's to keep him safe, you know? So will you help me?"

"Um, I don't think I can do that, 'ttebayo," Naruto deflated, obviously confused by her, "you're a Kumo-nin, 'ttebayo..." he trailed off, shifting.

Yugito sighed, "I understand. I won't ask you to do anything you're uncomfortable with but maybe, I don't know, you like pranks don't you? Wouldn't stop you from doing any..." she trailed off with a raised brow.

He brightened, "Oh! Yeah, I can do that, 'ttebayo!"

She nearly exhaled in relief, but before she let out the breath, she heard a kunai whistle close by. Yugito moved quickly, pulling up her bandanna to hide her face from her attacker, shifting Itachi in her arms, and gently pushing Naruto out of the line of fire. It all happened too quick for her to realize what she was doing, and by the time she did, she was already turning.

Then she froze.

Kakashi Hatake stood right before her eyes. He gave her a one-eyed smile, one hand holding the copy of an Icha Icha novel though she didn't see which one. He gave her a wave with his relatively free hand, though this one held a kunai.

"Yo," he said.

 _Shit_ , she thought.

* * *

**Two ( & Many) Lives Saved - End**


	3. Three Lost Souls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes to keep in mind;
> 
> Yugito is dealing with limited foreknowledge because she's dealing with the fatal flaw of human memory. She doesn't know the fine details like she's a wiki so she doesn't particularly understand the Sharingan. She has vague ideas of everything and most of her knowledge reflects her ideas of people before they do the facts. This is how my brain usually works and this is an SI so... Also, there is a reason for her being a character who often contradicts herself if you're ever wondering why.

  **Three Lost Souls**

* * *

Yugito wasted no time.

In seconds she was pushing chakra to the soles of her feet, tensing her muscles and then springing into the air. Despite the pain in her hands and muscles, her hold on the Uchiha didn't slacken. Nor did the voice in her head screaming out every obscenity that she could think of and _then some_ , coming up with some rather colorful ways to put her situation to words. It certainly helped her keep her outward cool, having something to do that wasn't _running for her life_.

Matatabi was not amused.

 **He smells like a dog, so kill him** _**.** _

"No," she hissed out loud, shucking away any act that led others to believe she _didn't_ have a voice in her head. "You aren't helping."

 **You asked me not to** , Matatabi gave what Yugito could feel as a shrug, though it was always weird to feel motion from the bijū. Yugito mentally shook it off, instead doing what she could not to drop where she stood. Her back was wet with blood now and the distinctive smell of it hit her full force each time she took a breath.

Then, just as she leapt over a building, _painfully_ close to the walls of Konoha (so close, so _close!_ ), something grabbed her ankle and she went tumbling down. Her ankle snapped, her claws going out to effectively _maim_ whoever had just incapacitated her in such a way. She was too stunned to feel the pain and the anger bubbling forth did wonders for her pain tolerance when it _did_ begin to seep in. Then she went sprawling, barely able to hold onto Itachi as she took a dive and hit the ground. Her face hit the earth ruthlessly, blood spurted from a crushed nose, and that damned kunai _dug_ _deeper_.

_Fuck my life._

Normally Matatabi would chide her for such language and then Yugito would put the barriers up around her mind. But even if the beast said anything, she was far more distracted in crawling away from whoever had found her.

Then she heard her name.

"Oh shit, Yugito-chan," Majime said, standing over her with wide eyes, "I saw you and didn't even think. We've been looking for you, heard something went sour at the Uchiha compound."

Yugito grunted, accepting when he held out a hand for her. As she accepted, she was already planning her revenge for the brutal way he'd taken her down. Talk about friendly fire. She tried not to outwardly glare at him but she wasn't doing a very good job at keeping a cool head anymore.

"I have the Uchiha," she said in place of all the insults toward him that came to mind. Some were so good, it was a damn shame she couldn't be as catty as she'd like to be.

"I see that," Shī said, coming into view, brows lifted, "and I'm sensing approaching jōnin coming this way now."

"They most likely have ninken," she muttered bitterly, shoving Itachi into Majime's arms. Then she limped up to Shī, "I walked into a massacre. _This_ guy snapped, was killing everyone in sight. Thought that if he hated them so much, he could make a friend out of Kumo. Much easier than snapping up a kid that might never get their Sharingan in the first place."

Shī nodded, as if this made perfect sense, "Unfortunately, you may have just started the Fourth Shinobi World War but at least the mission is a success."

"If they didn't want to risk a war, then they should have never set up the mission in the first place," Yugito griped in a sour tone, taking the chance to dig the kunai in her back out.

_Matatabi-san, I would really appreciate any sort of healing right about now._

Of course, Shī was a medic and a damn fine one but it always was a bonus to her that she healed far faster than others did. If things went well, that ankle would be repaired within the next few hours after she managed to set it properly. Would need Shī's help for that though...

Shī was smiling now, as if he knew something she _didn't_ and she blinked realizing that the mission was all just an elaborate ruse. Because war was exactly the sort of thing Kumo reveled in. It was the time where the greats all established a name for themselves, a time where true power was discovered in attempts to wipe out the enemy at large. New justu popped up, more chances to test out A-ranks and S-ranks, everyone getting much more creative in how they killed people, etc, etc. Yugito hated it but she'd grown up in wartime and had a wartime education to back her experiences.

It made her ill to think that her village was purposely starting a new war but it made more sense the more she thought about it.

Kumo was always suspicious of the other villages. Always kept a standing army, never relented on security details, and had the strongest military _for a reason_. They were always trying to figure out their enemies, always sending ninja out on missions that skirted on the edges of what was apart of the peace treaties. They were liars in the name of power and always ready to prove their suspicions right, that everyone wanted Kumo dead.

Which wasn't a lie.

But no time for that and worrying about something when she had much more important things to do. Like survive.

"Shī-san," she said, "permission to stay behind as a distraction for you two to escape?"

Shī hesitated, dark eyes flashing from Majime and back to her.

"I can't run as fast as I'd need to while lugging dead weight around," she explained, and found it slightly ironic that she had to interview to be the one that risked their life, "and I'm the best out of us all at evasion techniques. I have a better chance at getting away, I just need my hands free."

"You're one of the jinchūriki," Majime started, staring daggers at her, "we can't risk losing you."

"Maa, maa, you all can stay," a new light voice interjected and Shī was already dashing away, leaving Yugito with a stubbornly earnest boy who thought he had a choice in the matter of her life.

"Leave," she snapped at him and with lower lip trembling, he followed her orders and began to run at a much faster pace than the medic had set. Itachi's head lolled and Yugito had to blink away her concern before turning to face her new opponent.

"Is war really what Kumo wants then?" Kakashi Hatake asked, and she suddenly felt more tired then she ever had in years. It was as bad as after the first time she had ever killed, when she'd watched the life in a man's eyes bleed out for the first time. Bone deep and no way to claw her way out until it relinquished its hold on her.

She stared up at the Copy-nin and felt everything she'd ever done in her life flash in waves of textures on her hands. She felt blood, she felt metal, she felt tears, she felt ash, she felt _death_. Her shoulders slumped forward and she very nearly fell to her knees. She didn't know what kept her standing, ankle pulsing in wave after wave of agonizing pain.

"Kumo only wants power," she said, her voice heavy and muffled by the bandanna stuck to her face with slick blood. "But we're not the only ones, it would seem. Konohagakure has it's own offenders. For example, I would watch Danzō Shimura quite carefully with what he intends to do with the still standing faction of ANBU. Remember, the eyes of the world are always watching, Kakashi Hatake, and some only seek to rule."

He was quiet as he watched her, and the dog perched on his shoulder gave a small yawn. They both blinked at her, one indifferently and one with a sharper look. Kakashi looked as if he were trying to read into her, trying to pull apart everything she'd said and make sense of it. But he wouldn't be able to find reason in her words, because she had none for saying what she did.

Kakashi at this point already knew of ROOT, had been scouted by Danzō himself, and she'd only revealed that she knew—and that Kumo might too. Yugito had no real idea on what that meant for her, what that meant for the villages, and what it meant to Kakashi.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous, a slow trickling stream of killing intent growing each second she just looked at him. She lived with a bijū though, and had never before shown fear when surrounded in killing intent. Not with the sort of vivid nightmares she'd used to be tormented with or the way Matatabi's chakra used to scorch at her skin and pull and _peel_...

She wasn't impressed.

It must have shown on her face because in that moment, he dropped down to be eye level with her. She didn't move, didn't even flinch. If she did, she might have just toppled over as her legs gave out. Already she was close to it but was keeping it together with a steel that she very rarely felt in herself.

Cats aren't very brave but...they have a healthy dose of self-preservation. That's what she blamed it on at least.

Kakashi Hatake was taller than her by around ten centimeters. Not enough to seriously tower over her but just enough that she did appear to be the smaller prey. She _was_ the smaller prey by way of her damned injuries at this point. She didn't want to use the cloaks, didn't want to risk Kakashi revealing his Sharingan and using it on her. It wouldn't even matter if he knew he could use it on Matatabi or not, at this point it was more that he could pretty much destroy her _now_ , with the Sharingan she would be _obliterated_.

She really didn't want to be overkilled—nine lives be damned.

"I'm only being polite. After all, I already know your name by the Bingo reports, Yugito Nii," he said, talking more to the book in his hands then her. But somehow she had the eerie feeling that he caught everything, nothing escaping his attention. If she so much as moved a muscle...

Yugito was dead and it would not be by a member of the Akatsuki. It would be by Kakashi Hatake and her entire life would have been pointless. She lived so many years alone, endured scorn and hate and doubt the entire time she was a child who had yet to prove herself. It had been _her_ , not the other Yugito, who had gained Matatabi's trust and had so expertly wielded the cat's chakra. She, not anyone else, had survived mission after mission and all for the respect she so craved.

It frustrated her endlessly.

 _Fuck, fuck,_ fuck _._

Why had she lived at all if it was only to come to this? Why live at all in the first place? Why was she so _desperate_? Why, despite everything telling her that it just wasn't worth it, did she still want to live?

She felt cold in her arms and legs but so, so hot in her chest. There was an ache there accompanied with it, adding another weight to her shoulders as she struggled to keep standing. Her vision already had black dots to them and she was close to just tipping forward. But balance, even in the face of everything wrong with her body, had always been her forte.

She kept standing, perfectly still.

"If I die," she said in a conversationally casual tone, "then it will perhaps extend the time when Akatsuki strikes. Matatabi will perhaps take a while to form, you know. I have a feeling the cat can be quite moody sometimes."

"Hmm," he intoned cheerfully even as killing intent was practically being shoveled onto her, "fascinating."

"Could be," she agreed, "because you have a friend in the group. I wonder, will you recognize him as he is? Or maybe you'll feel it instead when the pair comes together?" Yugito gestured to his covered eye and then stared up at him with a smile he could not see, "Do you already feel it, maybe? Is that graduation gift pulsing with him so close? You know the one. Obito Uchiha, was it?"

"You're insane," Kakashi said darkly and it was for the first time that the killing intent she felt actually made her knees shake. Then she swallowed and righted herself before she could bowl him over if her body gave out.

"No," she murmured with a sigh, "I'm afraid that isn't the case. Though I fully wish that it were." She shook her head, before meeting his eye, his book forgotten in his hand as he gave her his full, unrelenting attention, "Kakashi, the entire Uchiha clan was nearly massacred today. Could still be actually," she shook her head of the thought and refocused on him, "Itachi Uchiha was under misorganized orders or something, can't remember. Danzō was _definitely_ involved and it was either to wipe the clan out or let the clan lead a coup. Itachi was working his way through following orders when I stopped him. I don't know why, I just did and now I'm taking him with me so that there may be a chance, one day, that he could see his brother again and _not_ be killed by him."

Yugito wondered absently if a truth serum had been slipped into her milk or something that morning. Because, really, she _never_ talked so much before about the information that had been spinning in her head since she'd been born. Now she was spilling her guts everywhere. First was Naruto and now it was Kakashi, who was staring at her like she'd officially lost all sense.

She honestly probably had.

But mostly she was so sure she was about to die, so sure of it and still she wanted to _live on_ in any way possible to her. To be the name that fed him information before her death, to be the first jinchūriki to fall.

Yet, no matter what she was saying it still didn't feel enough. There was so much to share, _just so much_ that she could warn them about. So many terrible things had happened and so much pain had festered in the story she'd fallen into. She hated that, she hated all of it and just wanted it to change.

"You speak as if you'll get out of this," he said, tone low and she could practically sense his next move. Her muscles tensed and despite the blazing agony her ankle emanated, she jumped before the kunai in his hand could get lucky. Still, as she landed on the tiled roof on the only leg she dared put pressure on, she couldn't hold back the soft whimper that fell past her lips at what she had just put her foot through. She only hoped it would be okay.

"You won't," Kakashi said as soon as he joined her to the change of scenery.

She let out a slow breath, trying to calm herself and get her thoughts organized.

"Think of me when you see his face again, please," she murmured, her vision disappearing as her eyes closed. Her shoulders slumped dangerously low and by some sort of miracle, she was still standing. Vaguely she was aware that this was blood loss affecting her. She probably shouldn't have plucked that kunai out of her back. Well, too late to regret it now.

 **No** , Matatabi suddenly said in her head and made her open her eyes just before Kakashi went in for a killing stroke.

But before that could happen, before she could die like a coward too afraid to keep fighting, Matatabi _forced_ the cloak of blue chakra to suddenly cover each inch of her. Her skin was burning now, in a way that always happened when the cat forced anything on her but it was almost pleasant, a reminder that she still lived.

She could move still—and she did.

Then, in the space of seconds, a hand touched her broken ankle, gripped it and swung her back down. She fell into a disorganized heap, her breathing coming in gasps. He towered over her now and if she squinted she could barely just make out that he revealed something out of her worst nightmare. He crouched before her, the cat's chakra returning to her coils in a flash of fear.

His hands went to her face and he peeled away the cloth that hid cherry red lips and a crooked bloody nose. A quick touch on her cheeks, then they slipped below her chin. A hit.

She stopped feeling.

* * *

 

They didn't torture her, so that's a plus.

Couldn't exactly get the Yamanaka technique to work either, not with a massive chakra surging up to deflect any attacks. Matatabi was a rather useful ally.

Being a jinchūriki in the hands of the enemy was actually not entirely without it's merits. They were all too scared to 'wake the beast', as if she didn't have Matatabi under control. Hmm, bad phrasing actually. No one had control over a bijū unless they had the Sharingan or some other bullshit method. She had neither but she did have faith in her cat friend that there was no chance of her going insane upon pain and anger. Not that she was telling _them_ any of that; she liked her body parts where they were.

The worst of everything was the waiting. Not many people stopped by in her cell, though when they did all they asked were some _stupid_ questions.

" _Did you kill those Uchiha clan members?"_

" _Why would Kumo want them dead?"_

" _What brings the Two-Tail's jinchūriki to Konoha?"_

Like she said, _stupid_.

She did answer them all honestly; didn't see why not. They were rather simple, one worded answers after all.

 _No._ Notable silence with a raised brow _. Sharingan._

They _did_ try to answer smarter questions, particularly when it came to her interaction with Kakashi. Why did she say what she said? What does Kumo know? Why did she bring up Obito Uchiha? Yadda, yadda, yadda.

She purposely _did not answer them_. No way in hell was she going to actually try and get Danzō's attention. That would only mean death, a way to try to shut her up after discovering that she wouldn't be able to tell him how she knew what she knew. She also found it rather interesting that they never asked a single question about a mysterious man seen at the Uchiha compound. Which meant he was never there at all or that he was just that good and decided to dip out when Itachi was stolen by a crazed jinchūriki.

Good news was that the Uchiha clan was still alive and eyewitnesses, for once, did not fail her.

The story that would send her home was slowly growing credence the longer she was there in her cell. Delegates from Kumo were sent to try to work out what exactly everyone was going to do. Was another war going to start up? Konoha couldn't exactly risk it when they were still feeling tremors from the last one _and_ the Nine-Tails Attack. Kumo wanted their other jinchūriki back again.

Then, after what felt like an entire month but was really more like a week, Yugito was led out and escorted to a grand looking room filled with a whole ton of people. The mixed scents that crowded in the room made her newly set and healed nose twitching before she recognized a few of them. Shī. Darui. Woah, _Ay_? Kirābī was not in sight but she had a feeling he was hanging around somewhere where her nose couldn't find him.

"Yugito-chan," Ay said cheerfully as soon as he saw her. There wasn't even a hint of anger in his eyes, and it was an expression she knew well enough to always note it when she saw it. So he wasn't upset with her. In fact, he seemed... _pleased_. She relaxed.

"Cousin," she said by way of greeting, smiling amiably enough. She itched to have something to cover her face but Konoha was not so kind as to supply _that_ for her. To add to it, she didn't have even a hint of makeup on her face and knew from the lack of sleep that she must have looked horrible.

"Well, Yugito-san," a gravel like voice suddenly interjected and she was shuffled to a seat that faced the crowd of people that had come. She blinked, finding it odd that she recognized so many of them. Notably was Fugaku Uchiha, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, Chōza Akimichi, Hizashi (?) Hyūga, and, you guessed it, _Danzō._ She visibly cringed upon seeing him, unable to stop envisioning his arm covered with Sharingan. It made her so _ill_ to imagine it, that he had done something so incredibly cruel and disgusting. That he had the balls to say it was all for his village. He was _scum_ , the worst sort of trash who misguidedly thought that he could use the well being of Konoha as an excuse for his rise to power.

Yugito shook her head, swallowing hard as she forced herself to think about anything _but_ him.

Instead, she looked at the man who spoke, a man who could have only been the Sandaime Hokage. The guy who was nearly as misguided in believing the best in people when they _didn't deserve it_. He annoyed her endlessly, being so completely oblivious to everything. It was as frustrating as trying to catch a fish with only teeth. _Sometimes you need claws_ , she wanted to say to him.

Matatabi hummed in agreement and nodded sagely within her.

"We would like to ask you to share your side of the story," the Hokage said, his tone commanding and his eyes sharp on her.

She sighed irritably, "You already got it."

"Then share it again," Danzō snapped and she locked eyes with him.

 **Kill him first, make it painful** , Matatabi helpfully put in.

"Patience," she said out loud with a smile and watched the shoulders in the room tensing. Ay was notably bobbing his head, grinning all the while. She hadn't intended it but she was definitely scoring some tekkadon points with him.

She decided to give in, knowing there was no point to draw it out.

"I was on a mission to retrieve the Sharingan," she said, sneaking a glance at Ay, who waved his hand encouragingly, "and decided to go on ahead while my teammates took a quick break. Jinchūriki stamina and all that. So I went into the Uchiha clan compound to scope everything out. Ended up coming across a whole lot of dead bodies. I could have turned back, declared the Uchiha clan dead and call the mission a failure. I didn't," she sighed then and looked at Fugaku directly, "and instead I went deeper in and listened for the sounds of fighting. Finally, I came across Itachi Uchiha stabbing people to death. He was using his Sharingan on them, making it easier for him to kill them. I, well, I'm the sort of idiot that doesn't think and instead put myself in as his target. We fought for a bit until I knocked him out cold. People woke up from their genjutsu cat naps and started hailing weapons at me, one got a lucky hit."

"You weren't corroborating on the clan's attack?" Fugaku asked with a hint of a glare and she shook her head, unperturbed.

"Definitely not," she said.

"Naruto says you told him a bad man was controlling him," the Hokage said and Yugito had to blink at that.

 _Oh yeah_ , she thought, having forgotten all about that already.

"I lied," she admitted, then hesitated, "well, not entirely." Yugito couldn't help herself. Her eyes locked on with Danzō. His gaze was cold and filled with hatred, so much so that she actually had to look away.

She was faced with a dilemma. Tell the entire truth, be looked at as a lunatic and completely ruin everything in her life by attempting to dethrone a terrible man. Or don't tell the truth and let him fester. What would this mean for Itachi if she told the truth? He could perhaps come home...

Yugito shook her head.

She knew what she had to do and it was really what any Kumo-nin would do to ensure a mission success.

_This mission is still not over._

"He was unconscious, I didn't have the chance to ask him _why_ he was doing what he did but I did have a few guesses. Figured he either had orders," notable inhale in the room, "hated his clan to the point of being murderous," Yugito shook her head and held up a third finger, "or he was being controlled. Figured I'd tell the little kid that his friend's brother wasn't dealing with the other two options, because that puts the responsibility on Itachi and kind of ruins the family love. However, my vote is on the second option, just because."

 **Liar** , Matatabi chided but rumbled out a low laugh.

"But," Yugito went on, waving her hand in the air, "we're derailing, and personally, I think herding kittens is quicker than this pace so may I continue or are there any other questions?"

Ay seemed to be shaking with his laughter, obviously enjoying her performance. She kind of was too.

"...you may," the Hokage said after a long moment's pause.

"Great," Yugito absent mindedly began to pick at her nails, expressing just how much of a waste of time this was, "so along the way as I'm attempting to make my great escape, I let himself move to an alley because, well, I had a kunai in my back and I wanted to get it out. I alerted my teammates to where I was but well, I kind of got the wrong attention. First, I stumbled across that boy you mention. Naruto. Cute kid. Well, he was obviously disturbed to see me and I was pretty sure I was going to die so I told him..." Yugito trailed off, stumped about what to say, before sighing and bull dozing on ahead, "and I gave him a mix of lies and truths meant only for the Hokage's ears—have fun with that, by the way—and soon after that Kakashi Hatake appeared. I ran away, met with my teammates, gave them Itachi and Kakashi knocked me out. Woke up in a cell, a few days passed and now I am here. Questions?"

She shouldn't have prompted them.

Immediately voices began to raise up and attack her sensitive hearing. Shouts made her cringe inwardly and she scooted as far back as she could in her seat. People rose out of their seats, more angry yelling commenced and it was a _mess_.

 _Get me out of here_ , she begged Matatabi.

For once, the cat actually did something helpful and without an added commentary.

Once she felt the tug on her chakra, she followed it and dipped deeper into the link before landing back onto the water filled plane. She saw her reflection just as she looked down and was surprised to see that she didn't look half-bad, all things considered. Her complexion as already notably pale and anything more just blended in better. Her bags were dark, of course, but something about the lighting in this realm was doing something for her.

"This is a really big mess," Yugito commented as she turned to look at Matatabi who gave a wide yawn, sharp teeth clearly in few. She grinned at the cat before settling in at the base of a fiery paw. "Is anyone going to joining us?"

" **My siblings are in a bit of a mood** ," Matatabi said, licking at the flames that covered every visible inch. She wondered, not for the first time, what it was like to be a bijū, a sentient mass of chakra. It was intriguing to think about and always fascinated her.

"Ah," she hummed out in understanding before she settled back to watch the dancing flames flicker and pulse with life. "Some people believe you used to be human, y'know. Like a bakeneko."

" **If anything, I'm a nekomata** ," Matatabi corrected, speaking inside her mind with the cat's tongue distracted in the act of grooming.

"Yes," Yugito agreed with a wry smile, "because you're so adult."

" **I'm ancient** ," the cat said, this time using a mouth to do it, enunciating each word with a fierce show of sharpened teeth.

"Hmm," Yugito nodded, smiling at the sight of her fiery friend before frowning, "is it time to go back yet?"

Matatabi shrugged, shifting what looked like clouds of fire in the process.

"Have they quieted down?" Yugito asked, figuring she should be asking smarter questions.

" **Yes. They're staring at you, quite perplexed.** "

"Wonderful," she said cheerfully, "you can send me back now."

Matatabi waved the namesake two tails in the air with a burning flourish as it made the water-filled landscape blur in front of her eyes. Then, with a feeling of being gently pushed back into her body, Yugito allowed herself a soft gasp. It was less disorienting than last time, which was a definite improvement. She didn't particularly like being dizzy.

True to word, when she finally focused in on her physical surroundings, everyone _was_ staring at her.

She blinked, "...what?"

Ay just burst out laughing, as if her nonchalant question had been the hit that broke the damn on his boisterous laughter.

The meeting didn't go on much longer then that, which surprised her but she had never been the one with a head for politics. Though what she could follow was this; Ay told the room that Itachi had officially defected from Konohagakure and was, in fact, deciding to align himself with Kumo for the time being. She had a feeling that the last bit was more forced than a decision that Itachi himself had made.

The war was not going to start, apparently the story being thus;

Yugito had saved the Uchiha clan from a mad man. She did nothing wrong. She was a hero. Kumo gets the Sharingan because mad men are accepted with open arms and Konoha couldn't exactly strong arm the retrieval of a shinobi that had proven himself to be deadly against them. Well, they could do a tell all and announce that they wanted the clan dead but that wasn't exactly _smart_ and so Kumo won the upper hand in the negotiations, walking away with the prize.

She would get to go home. The mission to get the Sharingan was a success. Yugito had just put everyone else in a _really_ complicated situation but hey, at least Kumo was happy with her.

* * *

**Three Lost Souls - End**


	4. Four Facts About Life (& Cats)

**Four Facts About Life ( & Cats)**

* * *

Itachi had no place to live. Yugito lived alone. She had a rather large apartment.

 _Idea!_ Ay had said with a grin on his face as if everything was absolutely perfect.

 _He's going to kill me in my sleep_ , she argued once the Raikage spouted that stupid shit to her face.

He actually couldn't. Itachi was bound, hands stiff and set in an immovable ball at his front. He had a think black cloth covering most of his face, only leaving his mouth visible. He could walk, sure, cause no way in hell was he being carried by her _anywhere_. But other than that, he was completely unable to do _anything_ that could allow him to escape.

Yugito didn't think he wanted to escape actually. More likely he was both confused, terrified, angry, and relieved. Or, at least, that's how _she_ would have felt if she were in his place. Itachi had killed a lot, nearly thirty, but he had never gotten to his parents and thus had never seen his brother. His mission had failed and it hadn't been because _he_ had failed. It'd been because she stopped him.

He was quiet, like a cat.

He never talked to her, never said a word as she fed him. She never asked him anything though she itched to. Instead, she was just _there_ , and things were getting fairly awkward with having a thirteen year old boy in her apartment. It was hard for him to bathe, hard for him to move in the apartment without his sense of sight, and still he never made a sound.

Finally, after a week of this silence continued, Yugito relented. It was just too much, her sense of smell too strong to overlook the fact that his hygiene had taken a certain dip.

 _Why did they stick him with_ me? She asked herself for the millionth time. It just wasn't fair. At least the person who got him should have been a male or someone who could handle a situation like this. Yugito just didn't have the tact for this, couldn't exactly get Itachi to do anything he didn't want to do and he was unable to perform even the most basic tasks on his own.

Not cool. _So_ not cool.

Cats can clean themselves. Itachi was not actually a cat.

"You're getting a damn bath, cat," she told him, her tone exasperated as she ushered his body into the bathroom with an already full tub. "You smell terrible and unfortunately it's starting to infect _everything_. So, I'm sorry, but unless I get permission to undo your restraints this is the way it's going to be. Let's hope it's soon because, honestly, touching a child is just _wrong_ and this is awkward and I hate it but you _stink_."

Itachi seemed to shift uncomfortably but she was already moving. Lifting his arms in the air, she pulled his shirt over his head, careful of the cloth over his face, before she slid his pants and underwear down his hips. At this point, she wasn't looking at him anymore and was strongly imagining him as more catlike the longer the experience went on.

 _Just a cat that needs a bath_ , she told herself.

"Kick it off," she told him and looked away as she heard him shift his pants and underwear off. Eyes still on the far wall, she shuffled him towards the bath slowly and let him get in the tub on his own. Yugito huffed out a sigh, "Now, I'm going to scrub you as clean as I can, okay, cat? Arms and torso, the face if you don't Sharingan me to death, but I am _not_ going lower. Cats take care of that on their own," she said, face red as she took a seat by the tub.

 _This is officially the worst experience of my life_ , she told Matatabi _, this is going to be in my nightmares._

**Just be a good mama cat and get it over with.**

Easier said than done.

Itachi was still silent but his body language said that he was relaxed, more so than she'd seen him the entire time he'd been staying with her. Probably because he was finally getting clean. Couldn't have been too comfortable, especially with the heat making everything _way_ too hot and suffocating.

"I haven't ever really done this before," she said conversationally, attempting to keep her cool as she grabbed a clean rag and dipped it into the water, "I've never had siblings and when I was growing up I was usually by myself in the bath. Even at the age of three. Shampoo was my worst enemy for the longest time, mostly because I was convinced it was there only to get into my eyes and it was hard enough keeping my hair cleaned. My foster families didn't want to get too involved, you see. Jinchūriki children _terrify_ people, think we'll go nuts or something. I never did."

She reached for his arms, and began to scrub, falling into a sort of uncaring trance as she cleaned him of dead skin and dirt.

Yugito continued to talk, "See, Kumo has a, well, a way of doing things with jinchūriki. I was selected as the best candidate after I was orphaned. I was two years old and I do have a blood connection with the Raikage. He's my cousin, but like, twice removed or something. It's tradition for the Kage to have a family connection with the bijū hosts. Kirābī is the Raikage's adopted brother, you see. We're all a very close knit family," she paused, shaking her head, "is that I'd like to say but that isn't true."

She mindlessly re-wet the rag and applied a healthy dose of her body wash, the scent of strawberries filling the air. Itachi was still quiet and seemed almost to be sighing contentedly as she moved to scrub at his back.

"I have a very high tolerance for pain," she admitted softly, "from having undergone testing. We do this so that we can lower the chances of us ever being weak enough for the bijū to get out or to take over. We endure months of it, of being healed, brought to the brink of death and then being healed again. Then there was the Falls of Truth. It's on an island not too far from here," Yugito sighed, "Bi-san was only there for a while before he was able to use Gyūki-san's chakra. I took a bit longer but eventually I was able to leave with full control. It's, uh, _not_ easy getting control over a bijū's reserves and because both of us succeeded, the village is a little bit more accepting of us. They trust that we won't go on a crazy rampage."

Yugito paused, silent for a second as she regarded his nest of dirty black hair, "Can I trust _you_ not to go on a crazy rampage if I took off the blindfold?"

He was still for a moment, thinking, and then he slowly nodded. Itachi could very well be lying but she had a feeling that he was telling the truth.

Cats have a certain affinity for lies, after all, and she felt nothing dishonest in him.

She carefully unworked the knot out of his tangled up hair, gentle as she could be as she got it free. Yugito slipped her hand over his eyes as most of the blindfold fell forward. She worked it out from underneath her fingers but kept her palm over his eyes.

"It's going to hurt to get used to the lights," she told him and slowly let her fingers spread apart, "but just slowly get used to it..."

Eventually, as she gave him time to grow accustomed to the bright lights in her bathroom, she met dark, hollow eyes. He looked almost like a dead man sitting in her tub, and his dark hair hung flat against his face. She tried for a smile but knew it didn't help anything.

Instead she gestured him to whirl around, "Let's hope the knots aren't too bad. Don't want to be here all day."

With his back to her and with her shifting in her seat, she reached for the shampoo, "Sorry I'm using my products. Don't really know what you use and at least mine smells much nicer than unwashed hair."

He was still quiet but now it was a lot more comfortable than it had been. Yugito even found herself humming absentmindedly as she soaped up his hair and vicariously worked through the thickest knots with her sharp nails. Then, keeping his bangs from falling into his eyes with one hand, she reached over and grabbed the cup she'd set off to the side.

She rinsed his hair as best she could with a cup full of water at a time, wringing his locks in her hands. Then came the conditioner and the cycle repeated itself.

"You're a little bit more human now," she told him with a smile that he couldn't see, "less of a vicious killer."

He flinched.

She blinked.

 **You have no tact whatsoever**.

Yugito frowned as she mentally grumbled towards Matatabi to shut up. Then, she sighed and did the only thing she could think to do. Her arms went around his shoulders, one hand going up to feel the dampness at his eyes before she took his sight away.

"Itachi," she started, "you will get your family back again. One day you will deserve your redemption, and pay for all of the lives you've stolen," she told him before her tone softened, "just think," she whispered in his ear as she felt him shake beneath her, "you're family is _alive_ still and there are always roads that lead to peace. Don't give up and don't do anything you don't want to _ever again_."

Then she pulled back, stood up from her stool and went to rummage for her largest and fluffiest towel. When she turned back with it in hand, he had shifted to watch her. His eyes were ringed with red, his nose puffy. He looked so sad, so lost and confused.

A cat wet and abandoned in the rain.

"Stand up," she told him and he complied readily, quickly being wrapped up in the towel like an Itachi burrito. He looked just fractionally more tired, his head beginning to dip lowly as if he were about to pass out. Yugito couldn't help but wrinkle her nose. "Don't fall asleep yet! It's time to get dressed."

She looked around herself, recalled that she forgot to buy him some new clothes, and stalked out of the bathroom feeling almost a bit homicidal. Yugito hated when other people used her things but this was a special circumstance and some sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.

Yugito went to her bedroom closet and Itachi tip-toed after her, watching her as she shifted through her clothes. Shamelessly, she picked out her least favorite shirt and sweatpants. The first was designed with a disgusting cat pun ("You catta be kitten me right meow") that was a joke gift from Ay, and the latter being something she hadn't worn in years but still kept washing just in case. No underwear for him, shit.

She wanted to just toss the articles of clothing at him and be done with it all but realistically she knew he could never manage to get it on himself. Not without the use of his hands.

For all she was as a jinchūriki and a orders following Kumo-nin, what she already did in giving him back his sight was suicidal and self destructive. Giving him back his hands was just simply insane and clearly inadvisable. No one had given her the cue to release him. No one had told her she could take off his blindfold either...

Yugito smiled at him thinly, "Can you show me your bindings?"

Eyes flashing with confusion, he maneuvered beneath his towel just enough to reveal his bound hands and keep himself decent. Yugito lengthened the nails on her right hand before cutting away the intricately wound rope. It fell to the ground in pieces and he flexed his fingers.

"Get dressed," she told him and walked out the door, muttering, "Should have done that from the start..."

**Now we get to test the theory on whether he will kill you in your sleep.**

_Great_ , she thought dryly.

* * *

He didn't actually attempt to kill her and she didn't bother getting out the rope.

Itachi still never spoke to her but he was never rude in his body language. In fact, he seemed relaxed around her and just allowed himself to sit on her couch and read himself through her rather impressive bookshelves. Her love for reading was pretty much the reason for her picking the largest apartment available to her. She still hadn't revealed the guest "bedroom" which was really just her private library filled with mountains of books she still needed to sort through.

But then, by the second week he was visibly bored.

She'd been able to go out to shop for groceries and often did make a point to stop by the bookstores and get a couple more books for him. Yugito didn't go on any missions, she was effectively given the baby sitter's gig and left to be bored _with_ Itachi as he slowly acclimated himself to Kumo.

Which was hard for him to do because he wasn't allowed outside her apartment without a full guard and his bindings put back in place. Ay was impressed with her guts in the way she handled Itachi but also made more nervous about why the hell she'd done it. He didn't scold her though, which is what she'd been expecting. Instead he just added more shinobi to watch the exits and entrances to keep an eye on him.

Ay really did have a lot of faith in her to get Itachi to switch sides, faith that was sorely misplaced.

Yugito sat back beside Itachi, thinking more about what to do next, when she dared look at the Uchiha.

"Do you want to go on a mission with me?" she asked and watched him stiffen. He looked up, meeting her eyes. Yugito still felt rather calm about everything, her thoughts more trained on working out the logistics, "Not anything horrible or demanding of you. Nothing against Konoha, of course. Just something to get you out of this place for a bit of time and I _think_ that I can talk my cousin into letting you join me on something easy. Of course, it'll make him think you'll be joining our shinobi force but Ay-san isn't a bad guy, not at first."

Itachi cocked his head to the side, a question in his gaze.

"He'll go far for power, of course," she told him bluntly, "if you remain obstinately against us, he'll just take your eyes and ditch you. Just the way things work, y'know," she shrugged and felt her lips pull into a slight smile, "But, if you stick with me on missions, you get to keep your eyes _and_ I promise I'll never make you do anything you don't want to do."

He watched her, reading into her again and looking for any signs of a lie in her words.

Itachi was still silent but after a long moment passed, he relented with a slow nod.

"Great," Yugito said cheerfully, "I think that makes us partners!"

* * *

 

Itachi was a terrible partner.

First, he never spoke to anyone, not even her. Just kept his silence as he watched them all in that eerie way of his. Like he saw everyone for what they were and was just really not that impressed. Some people complained to her, said that they'd heard about how Uchiha's were, but had never thought they'd be _that_ arrogant. Yugito just thought he was hurting too badly to talk or that he just didn't have anything to say. Still damn annoying when trying to pick out his order at a resturaunt.

Secondly, he was pretty much dead weight 99.9% of the time. Really testing that promise of hers as he apparently didn't want to actually do _anything_ on their missions. Sure, she could do them just fine on her own but she'd always imagined that a partnership would be a whole lot more fun than it was shaping up to be. It was pretty much like she had a silent ghost following her around everywhere, constantly watching her and reading into her actions. Very disconcerting _and_ annoying.

Third, and most importantly, he _ate everything_. People joked all the time about growing boy syndrome but she'd never before been around to see it. Now she did and honestly, housing a thirteen year old boy was getting on her nerves every time she peered into the fridge only to find all of her strawberries eaten. Most of their pay was going towards groceries. Actually, correction, _she_ paid for everything and he just collected and saved his ryo with a slightly arrogant tilt to his head. Like he was asking her, "What're you going to do about it, huh?" Not a damn thing, apparently.

Mostly because he had, over time, become her pet cat.

(The _least_ he could do was buy his own clothes, the prick.)

It was that fact that probably saved him from being throttled to death every time she laid her eyes on him. Instead, she'd just ruffle his hair and stalk off to leave him alone because cats are mostly solitary creatures.

Of course, all cats also demand attention and this he did with a disturbing amount of skill.

Itachi had this way of targeting her maternal instincts. Of course, she didn't dare treat him like a child (one doesn't treat a shinobi like him as a child) or act as if she were his mother. Instead, if she were to pick a word out, she'd become an older sister to him. Her pet cat but _his_ only reliable source of comfort in Kumo.

Every time he so much as looked sad or lost, she tugged him off the couch and they'd leave to go explore Kumo. She actually hadn't done that herself, at least not for a long while, and most of the sights and places to visit were relatively new to her too. It kept her mind off stupid things, and she hoped it did that for him as well.

Yugito also spoke to him a lot.

In what had become their apartment, it was only her voice that filled the silence but in a way it didn't feel as crushingly lonely as before. Someone was listening now.

"I should have gotten a cat a while ago, now that I think about it," she told him one night as she rummaged around the kitchen trying to make a meal that didn't taste like utter shit.

Itachi just sat at the table, facing her as he watched her move around. Like a true cat would.

"Because that's pretty much what you are by this point," she explained pointing at him with her spatula, "except I'm unfortunately a shit trainer and can't get you to do anything cool. Not even piss on Miwa's petunias," she gave him a stern glance, "which I would love someone to do. That woman is terrible, anything less than that just wouldn't teach her a lesson."

He just stared at her, clearly unamused.

"I'm going to be an awful mother," she declared as she pulled out plates for them and gave him a rather large helping of fried rice. "My children will rue the day they came into this world, cursing me for my ineptitude at being unable to handle teenagers and...actually, wait a second," she gave a shake of her head as she reorganized her thoughts, "thing is that I'll die before I get to do any of that so the point is pretty moot."

She tried not to let the thought bother her but it always did. Shaking her head once more, she continued heaping fried rice onto her own plate before taking out the previously baking fish. Trying to reabsorb herself into her task at filling the plate, she did it quickly and efficiently before turning to the table with two steaming plates in hand.

She was just setting hers down and getting herself seated when Itachi held something up to her. Yugito blinked, confused as she reached out to accept the piece of paper with neat, careful handwriting.

 _I think you'd be a wonderful mother,_ it said.

She read it a few more times, just soaking the words in before she gave a sharp shake to her head to tug her eyes away. She met his gaze and managed to smile at him even as she refolded the note and slipped it into her pocket.

Then, with a smirk, she said, "Just letting you know, now that you've said that, I'm for sure going to get my kids to piss on her petunias. Duty before honor and all that.

* * *

 

Itachi was a good kid, all in all.

He made people damn uncomfortable mostly with his silence but he was never outwardly rude. Eventually, as a month and a half passed by, he had become accepted for his shadow-like behaivor and even the shop owners Yugito frequented would ruffle his hair and give him an extra treat for being cute. It was a bit annoying, like watching someone manhandle her property but Yugito got over it as it continued to happen daily.

So, with that in mind, Yugito picked back up what had been her village schedule from the past, with him in tow. First she'd visit the parks and feed the cats and dogs. Surprising her was when Itachi joined in on this habit of hers and it got to the point that every time they went outside their apartment, they had an enterouge made entirely of animals demanding to be fed. Itachi also wasn't half bad with the kids Yugito would say hello to, nor was he rude to any of her passing comrades who stopped by just long enough to become a nuisance. (For some reason people thought it was an okay idea to _pet_ her. She would never understand.)

Then was her visits to the hospital where she'd thank the nurses and doctors on staff, purchase a smattering of flowers and get well cards from the gift shop and would commence making her rounds on visiting each injured shinobi she'd ever gone on a mission with. Like, ever.

It was a long list.

But today, the first were these idiots.

"I don't know why I visit you asses in the hospital," Yugito grumbled out as she jutted out a hip and set her arms akimbo. She stared down accusingly at the two boys who had been with her throughout her terrible genin years. Which had been an ironic two years, though they continued to torture her even the now.

"Because you _love_ us," Tamaki said with a bright smile, swiping back his pale white hair.

"No," she deadpanned.

Yūsa lifted a brow and nodded his head smugly towards the chocolate she just so happened to smuggle in. She flushed red in clear agitation— _not_ embarrassment—and ended up chucking the bars at both of their faces, not feeling the least bad when it split Tamaki's lip open.

"Yugito!" Tamaki cried, but he seemed unaffected by the blood rising to the surface on his face, "I love it! You always think of the best ways to cheer me up when I'm stuck bored with _this_ guy."

"You guys are partners," Yugito pointed out, "suck it up."

"He's just being moody cause I dealt the killing blow on our target," Yūsa shrugged.

"I called dibs on him!" Tamaki cried, dark eyes going wide.

"You were passed out on the floor, bleeding to death," Yūsa's tone shifted to be gently chiding, "I had to do it. I'll leave the next one for you, for sure."

"Whatever," Tamaki continued to grumble, cueing Yugito smack him upside the head with ruthless rapport. "Ow! What'd ya do that for, Yugi?"

She wrinkled her nose at him, "I keep hoping that it'll cure your stupidity. No such luck."

He pouted at her with his busted lip, "You don't mean _that_. You once said that I was a genius!"

Yūsa chuckled softly before smiling through bright green eyes, "You _did_ say that."

Ignoring the fact that it was true—Tamaki _had_ to have a brain for some of his more elaborate traps—Yugito never regretted those words more than she did now. The cat within her snickered the very moment her cheeks reddened further and Yugito struggled to save face. She moved towards the door.

"Whatever, idiots, just stop getting hurt!" she demanded before sliding the door open, chucking meaningless cards at their faces and stomping out. Itachi looked up at her just as she closed the door behind her, watching her straighten herself out. She met his unimpressed gaze and shrugged, "My genin years were hell because of them."

He said nothing, like usual, but she wasn't bothered by it.

Instead, she kept walking and looking down at her list for the next person on her listen. Absent mindedly, she talked too. Things like the missions she had taken on when she was younger, like the C-rank escort assignment that had turned into a B-rank when they'd come across enemy shinobi. Then she told the dumber stories, the ones usually starring Tamaki and his mad genius, like the time Tamaki had fought valiantly against a group of belligerent monkeys raiding a poor village's stocks and supplies. The damned animals had kept them on the job for up to a month and it had only been because of Tamaki that they succeeded at all.

"He ended up getting a bunch of cheap fabric and making pretty dresses out of them," she explained to him with a grin on her face, "See, Tamaki thought that they just wanted to feel pretty after one night spent talking with a farmer's daughter. I don't know exactly how, but, um, it _worked_. He got the monkeys to wear the dresses. Turned out they were summons and because they were so happy with him, he got to sign on with them. So now he has a group of beautifully dressed monkeys to help him out on missions. It's as ridiculous as it sounds."

Itachi was actually smiling, which was why she had gotten around to talking in so much detail and purposely stalling their next step, when a sudden voice broke into the companionable mood. Itachi tensed, causing Yugito to sigh as she looked back to see Kirābī bulldozing his way down the hall, a huge grin on his face.

"Hey, Yugito Nii, it's me, Kirābī!" he said in that booming, lyrical voice of his.

"What is it?" she asked, looking at him suspiciously. She'd grown accustomed to expecting the worst when it came to him getting involved. They often trained together, though not lately, and usually it left her bruised and swollen for weeks afterwards. He was not of the belief that he could hold back on her and hated if she did too. He knew her techniques better than anyone else in Kumo, about as much as she did. He beat her every time because of it.

"Mission time! Keep in mind, it's a summon, so run in," his grin widened and he clapped her back none too gently before spinning on his heel and dancing away to the beat of his own rhythm.

Itachi's eyes were wide as he stared at Kirābī's retreating form.

"First time?" she asked sympathetically, clicking her tongue before grabbing onto his shoulder and herding him in front of her, "He's an idiot too. We have a lot of them here in Kumo but you get used to it eventually."

Then she clapped in on the back and grinned at him with bared teeth, "Race you to the Tower?"

He nodded, and the two of them ran.

* * *

**Four Facts About Life ( & Cats) - End**


	5. Five Cat Tales

 

**Five Cat Tales**

* * *

"I would appreciate greatly if you acted less like a dead fish on this mission," she told Itachi bluntly as they trudged out of the big blue building that was the Raikage's domain.

He shrugged.

"Not joking here," she went on, looking at him with a stern expression, "this is an important mission for the Daimyo and if we fail it, I could lose my jōnin promotion. Don't know about you, but I actually like being able to boss chūnin around."

Itachi rolled his eyes. Or, his equivalent of an eye roll.

Disgusted with him and his teenage behavior, she bumped his side with her hip and gestured with her hand to the rest of Kumo, "I am _not_ cooking lunch so where do you want to eat? And remember, nothing too expensive, you mewling cat!"

Wordlessly, he beckoned her forward and they stalked off to where the smell of fried food was strongest. Walking their way along over stone paved streets and absent mindedly watching the clouds in the skies, Itachi led them towards a place Yugito had purposely ignored her entire time there.

A burger shack.

 _What is it with kids and greasy food_? She asked herself but had no answer for it. Neither did Matatabi, though the cat didn't really care either way.

"What'll you be having today?" the attendant asked and Itachi peered up at the hanging board with all the combo meals. Yugito always kind of marveled over how similar Kumo had been to those memories of the past and had to admit that it was this sort of thing that let her feel a whole lot better about ending up in Kumo. In addition to burgers, there was in fact donut shops (Yugito's guilty pleasure) and slushies.

"Fish burger!" Yugito said immediately towards the woman that smiled at them cheerfully, "and fries." Then she looked expectantly towards her hungry dead weight. Itachi held up three fingers. Catching on quickly, Yugito pointed towards the menu, "A number three too, please."

A number three was a beef burger with tomatoes and bacon—and chips instead of fries.

After ringing up the order, paying, and getting their food, they took it in a to-go bag before heading back to the solitude of their apartment.

She was just thanking the fact that Itachi was the exact opposite of an extrovert, when they took their places at the table. Itachi peeled away the wrapper and seemed to marvel over what he saw. He poked the fluffy bun and, trying to act natural about it, sniffed it.

Watching him, she couldn't help but laugh at the wonder she saw in his gaze. Itachi's cheeks just barely turned a little red when she caught her breath and wiped a stray tear away. He looked like he was glaring at her.

"They don't have these in Konoha, do they?" Yugito asked, still trying to keep herself from going into round two of kidney killing laughter. He shook his head, taking a hesitant bite. She smiled a bit at that, "It's kind of like this is some kind of vacation for you. Just greatly over extended."

He shrugged, noncommittally but seemed to like his choice as he continued to eat at it.

"You have it easy, y'know," Yugito complained with a huff, biting into her own burger with vengeance in mind, "you get paid for doing fuck all and I'm stuck with paying for everything instead." She shook her head, amazed for a second as she met his gaze, "It's actually impressive by this point. You're such a little shit, but I almost think that's the best part about you—makes it easier to like you."

She could tell he was confused by what she was saying but she didn't bother explaining that perfect people got on her nerves. If he wanted to know, he could just ask for himself.

Yugito went on as she ate, rolling her eyes at him, "Back to the mission though, this actually requires _teamwork_ and while I don't expect you to do anything to help with it, it would be nice if you could at least have my back. The Daimyo's son," she paused, thinking, "be glad you've never met him because he's a prick. He also believes he's in love with me," she waved her hands in the air dismissively, "and he's _definitely_ an asshole about it."

Itachi tilted his head to the side, in a clear show of the question he refused to voice.

"This story is actually funny," then she paused and smiled darkly, "or awful—depends on who you ask," Yugito shrugged, "I was a chūnin, aged twelve, and I was with Tamaki and Yūsa. It had been a while since we'd been matched up to go on a mission too, so we, or they, were pretty excited about it. The assignment was a simple escort, to get the Daimyo's kid from point A to point B. For ref, he makes this yearly journey through the Land of Lightning, visiting the villages along the way and listening to the people's complaints. _He_ was great, and if he ever gets the title for himself, it'll be a great day to celebrate. However," she sighed, "he had a brother with him on the journey that time around."

Yugito wrinkled her nose, just remembering, "He insulted everyone. Said Yūsa looked like a girl and that he acted like one. Said he should get fucked like one," Yugito shuddered just feeling the acidic words pass her mouth, "said Tamaki was a waste of space and a shit tactician because he lost a game of shōgi to him. By this point, we're already a week into the journey and we're moving at a snail's pace. It's maddening. I'd been avoiding the prick as best as I could, and was the sounding board to the boy's unheard complaints. Then, one day, he stumbles across me taking a nap. I was just innocently up in my tree and then he started yelling at me. He said a _lot_ to me, had been stewing for a while since I was so damn good at avoiding him. Basically, he said some sexist shit about girls not being good shinobi, that I didn't belong there and that I should just kill myself because that's about as much use as I was to him. Better off dead."

Yugito met Itachi's gaze and her grin turned sharper, feral as she ended the story, "I got angry, clawed him up _real_ good and then feigned ignorance that I did it at all. Everyone was on my side, even the guy's _brother_ , and they just turned the other cheek when he tried to start something. When the asshole came to visit me again, I had an entire guard made up of Tamaki's monkeys. Scared him shitless and that was that. He didn't bother me again until the last day of the trip. _That_ was when he confessed to me, declaring undying love. I slapped him. His common sense did _not_ , unfortunately, return."

She reclined back in her seat, picking at her fries before shrugging, "He still sends me love letters but I never respond."

When she met Itachi's gaze, he seemed to be smiling but he wiped it off his face quickly and covered it up with a cough. He went back to quietly eating after that point.

* * *

The mission had an ominous start to it. Yugito generally tried not to be a superstitious cat about things but on days like that, where the clouds coalesced together into tight balls of grey fury, she had second thoughts.

"I hate thunder," she muttered to herself as she, with two chūnin and Itachi, waited for their client to meet them at the edges of Kumo at the first checkpoint. They didn't have a gate in Kumo with how spacious everything was. They lived in a mountainous zone, hidden in a canyon as wide as the village itself but front to back, they didn't bother with keeping a standing gate. Instead they used various checkpoints along the way until the rocky terrain bled into the grasslands where all the mountain water poured into.

Checkpoints served multiple uses.

Vegetation wasn't exactly easy to come across in a land that was primarily cut out of rock and stone, at least not before the the mountains sloped off and the land of green came into sight. That was when the checkpoints cut off too. Though Kumo didn't nearly have it as bad as Iwagakure—who lived in a dry mountain range with the only saving grace being their abundances in geysers—as they had actual rivers and regularly recurring rainfall, they still had a long way to go before they got to the rivers from the bulk of the village. Checkpoints created a place to stop on the way and recharge, eat a meal, get a glass of water, etc., etc.

(Yugito had no real idea how Iwa got by without rivers in all honesty and she didn't fancy the idea of learning first hand.)

Another use came down to what was the original intent and the reason for its apt naming. They checked in, marked down their travel progress with the chūnin that stood for their watch, and were also able to send messages back to headquarters if any sort of problems cropped up. It had been set up this way first for the when the first war started and after the system had worked so well, they'd just kept it. Nothing got into Kumo without their knowledge and nothing got out either. Trust a village that sent out "retrival"—read as kidnapping—missions, to know how to defend against it.

Based on some of the peace treaties, the checkpoints were supposed to be used less often (more like taken down) when they were in a peacetime but, well, Kumo just wasn't very good at following rules. They always anticipated the next war was around the corner, which was a good mindset to have when they often instigated it.

Yugito sighed, feeling squeamish as she watched the clouds pull tighter together. Thunder fucked with her nerves, made her anxious and tense. The sound of it was just too loud, too jarring for her senses and it was the worst part of living in Kumo where it happened all too often for her tastes.

The price of being hidden by clouds.

Then she started squinting at the troop in the far distance that was making their way towards her and her squad. First she saw the oldest son of the Daimyo, the kind and good one who wanted to keep the Land of Lightning prosperous and growing. Second she saw _him_. By the time she did, and recognized him, it was too late.

They were closing in.

"Oh god," Yugito paled, nearly bumping into Itachi in her rush to move the _fuck_ out the way. "This is not good."

Itachi made a weird sound of complaint, which was as much as she had ever gotten out of him, when she went to hide behind the thirteen year old. She was unfortunately taller and it did not work.

"Yugito-chan, my love!" that terrible, terrible voice cried out and every hair on her body stood on end. She tried to move out of the way but before she could get away fast enough and still keep her graceful demeanor, she was crushed into a suffocating hug.

She hissed, instinct overriding everything else as her nails grew just long enough to tear at his clothes and get to skin. Yugito clawed desperately at him but years of growth, like some sort of tumor, had made him excessively large and tall. His muscles were crushing her. He had apparently been working out, much to her immense horror.

"Cat," she wheezed out in desperation, twisting in the grasp that held her to meet his dark gaze, " _help_."

He ignored her.

"No!" she lamented as a sloppy kiss was pressed to her cheeks.

 **Use excessive force. Don't let this man touch us!** Matatabi ordered, hissing in her mind.

Easier said than done. It was like a two ton weight had caught her in a vise-like grip. It was almost like being being hugged by Kirabi but effectively made worse because this person was trying to kiss her and would _not_ let go.

Then one of those attempted kisses landed on her mouth and she'd had _enough_.

No more messing around.

With a use of strength Yugito tried not to use on clientele's family members, she tore his arms off of her and shoved him to the ground. With the back of her heel instantly shoving onto his chest to keep him from rising, she snarled at him in a dangerously sharp tone, "Don't touch me, you dirty fucking _ape_!"

Then, with one last kick to the groin for good measure, she stalked off, wiping his spit off of her face as she went.

This mission was clearly going to be hell.

"My love is truly the strongest!" the prick she'd left behind boasted and she hissed lowly as she went to stand besides Itachi.

"You," she said to the teenager pointedly looking away, "are the worst kind of friend."

The Uchiha turned to look at her then, staring at her for a full second. He rolled his eyes.

It was the first time she ever truly wanted to smack him.

* * *

 

Itachi had a problem.

He had several of them, as things tend to go, but his biggest one—no, most _talkative_ one, was the jinchūriki, Yugito Nii. Put simply, she confused him. Endlessly. There had been countless times over the months that he had thought he knew her, had figured her game out.

First he had been under the impression that she was using reverse psychology on him. First she'd tell him that he didn't have to do anything but she would eventually manipulate him into doing everything she wanted him to. It didn't happen like that, at all. Either she forgot she was supposed to be making him into a Kumo-nin weapon or she was patient at the game.

He didn't think it was the latter. Yugito had a bit of a short temper. She never stayed angry for long, it seemed to make her tired and sad if she did, but she was outspoken and complained the moment something upset her. Which seemed to happen a lot because she was constantly complaining about the little things. He ate her strawberries, he used up too much shampoo and now they were out, he refused to eat her onigiri—small things like that. Then she'd calm down and smile at him, laughing to herself with her dark eyes shining, chuckling before telling him a new story.

She told him many stories, mostly about her past.

Every day he learned something new about her and every day it seemed to only grow more questions. Yugito wasn't simply understood. She never had a clear reason for doing anything. She'd taken off the blindfold to wash his hair, had trusted him with her life, and then she had unbound him without being told she could do it at all. She'd held him so tightly in the bath and whispered a dream into his ear as if she _believed_ it could be reality.

She was more than just her short temper and quick to deflate anger.

Yet she constantly hid the layers beneath that.

It was ironic; she spoke constantly and told him so many things about her and yet it never felt as if she was truly sharing anything _deep_ with him. Yugito never talked about her own dreams or her fears. Most of her stories never even featured her as the point of interest, they were usually about other people that she'd met.

She acted as if she truly cared about him, which was often times disorienting as she coupled harsh language with a ruffle to his hair. Sometimes, if she was feeling particularly happy that day, she'd drop a kiss to his forehead. It only served as a reminder that his hitai-ate was not on him, strengthening the fact that she was an enemy.

Yugito didn't act like an enemy. She smiled like a friend and supported him through the dark times that had followed the nightmare of That Day. If he had a nightmare— _oh_ _ **god no**_ _, did he die in vain?_ —she was usually there with a cup of warmed milk in her hand. With her there, humming a cheerful tune, he'd sit up on the couch. Then she'd hand him a mug and admit to him that she didn't sleep very well either. It never showed on her face that she struggled with it. Her complexion was always beautifully cleared, making him a little jealous when he struggled to hide the bags. He didn't doubt her though, she must have to, to always be awake when he needed someone most.

She'd kiss his forehead then too, right after she told him a funny story to take his mind off things. Weirdly enough, something he wasn't really used to, she didn't try to make the stories into lessons, like others had before her. She was weird in the way that stories from her usually tended to be just that, stories. They didn't need to be learned from, they were just there to be listened to.

Growing up his mother had read to him stories that were supposed to have morals, advice, and lessons. He'd always accepted that as the case with things. Even in school, his teachers tried to teach history but it was never something just to acknowledge of the past, it had to be learned from too. So learn he did.

Yugito would be an awful teacher.

But she was a great person. That is, if everything she'd shown him was the true her. It made him a little bit anxious around her, if he were honest. He constantly expected a change in her and he waited for her to snap. He would be waiting for a very long time for that to happen, though Itachi still waited. Sometimes he tried to forcefully annoy her, just to get a reaction out of her and hoping to see someone else there.

He didn't want her to be like this. He wanted to hate her. It would have been easier if he could hate her.

Itachi Uchiha was a _Konoha-_ nin first and foremost. He'd always seen Kumo-nin as the enemy, as people to be defeated before they could kill him and the people that he loved. Of course, he had that in common with his enemy now so perhaps it was just his due karma that he found himself accepted so wholly by the people he had fought his entire life? _He_ had killed people he'd loved.

(Izumi, Yūhei, Mitsuki, Genta, Takashi, Sui, Hanai, Yuki, Satsuki, Hirohito, Yasuda, Tsūkiko, Mogami, Datei, Koharu, Ritsuko, Inari, Gon, Tōka, Rize, Mako, Shiroyama,Tadashi, Ryota, Natsumi, Yūgo, Kenma, Matsura, Seiko and _Shisui_. All baring the Uchiha name, all people who had once smiled at him before he _wiped them from existence and for_ _ **nothing**_ _._ )

He was no better than them.

But she wasn't like that at all. Not like _him_.

Yugito was a bright spot in a world that was dark and _wrong_. Sasuke had also been one of those, a light that he had refused to snuff out. He never intended to kill his brother, no matter the orders.

It was like a bad, awful nightmare to recall the recent years of his life. He'd spent so much of it going back and forth, months of spying for both sides and being swept into the hatred that was consuming his clan in a fire that refused to dwindle. The village itself was just as unforgiving, unbending in their will to give the Uchiha clan more power, to satisfy them. But he could not speak up. He had been unable to voice his thoughts, unable to tell his father how terrible the plan was, how far the village was willing to go. He was being drowned, being covered in deceit and lies, caught between two forces, crushed by both. Yet he was allowed to live long enough to be forced into making a miserable choice. Both hurt him, both _ruined_ him.

The village or his clan.

He'd forsaken his name.

Konoha-nin, first and foremost, that's who Itachi Uchiha was and he wanted to suffer for his choice.

He refused to be better than what he'd proven himself to be, the murderer of his clan. He didn't seek acceptance. He sought punishment and he's originally intended for it to be dealt by Sasuke, his precious brother who followed him everywhere and wanted to be _just like him_. Itachi hated that.

 _See me for who I am_ , he wanted to say to those shining dark eyes, _I am not who you think I am._

He never could though. Instead, he would gently poke his forehead. A clue, a way to tell him to _think_ , for himself and not for anyone else.

Sasuke never understood it.

 _Hate me,_ he had intended to say once he revealed himself with blood soaked hands, _kill me and_ _avenge our clan._ _Just don't be fooled by me any longer_. _I am a lie._

He still hadn't seen his brother since the last "training" session they had together. He wondered what he was thinking, whether he was confused about Itachi's actions. Yugito hadn't mentioned anything pertaining to him whenever she told him about the situation in Konoha. She was, ironically, his only connection to his village.

She regarded it as disease ridden and infested by rats but holding together as well as it could. The Uchiha clan had not made any moves against the village. She also mentioned an intense hatred for Danzō Shimura, though he didn't know why. He assumed it was a Kumo thing, to hate the leaders of Konoha though he hadn't really expected it from her. Stranger yet was that she had no real problem with his Kage, though she had offhandedly muttered about his poor eyesight and how unfortunate it was that he couldn't see his true enemies for what they were. Itachi had no idea what she meant by that and was still trying to work it out in his head any time she brought up the subject. Was she talking about Kumo? He didn't think so.

He didn't talk to her—or any Kumo-nin—for a reason.

She was charming in a way that disarmed him, made him feel like he was talking to an old friend more than anything else. He felt most afraid of her than anyone else that he might let something slip, which hadn't been anything he'd ever been susceptible to. But then, he'd never been gone from Konoha for so long and in enemy territory.

It was probably more of Stockholm Syndrome taking place than anything else—though it still disturbed him that he couldn't outright distrust her.

Over the months she'd unrelentingly proved herself true to her word.

She'd told him to never do anything he didn't want to do. _Never again_ , she'd said in that set way of hers. Then she'd asked him to join her on missions, just for him to get out and about. He'd accepted less because he trusted her and more because he really was going a little crazy staying inside for so long. Itachi had almost expected her to go back on her word right away, to demand he do the mission with her. She hadn't.

In fact, she took care of everything and just let him _exist_.

It had been around then when he'd realized it. In Kumo, he was not Itachi Uchiha. He didn't have a name there at all—and if he did, it was 'cat' or 'little shit'. Similar to Itachi in Konoha, he didn't have a presence or a voice though it mattered less here than it did there. Here, he had no choices to make that weren't readily made. He was simply a shadow. Her shadow.

Yugito never hit him. She never raised a hand toward him, never insulted him unless it was to tell him it was a good thing. She was contradictory in things like that. There were threats, of course, where she'd fume and tell him all the interesting ways in which she would flay him alive. He was sure that she was strong enough to face against him and pull off a couple of those threats, had already read her with his Sharingan and discovered stats that matched his rather closely. But she never carried them out and instead would dismiss the problem quickly after.

She kept her vows, at least to him, and it continued to confuse him.

An honorable shinobi—he never thought he'd see the day.

But what was her reason to do it? What made her treat him so gently, made her replace those stolen strawberries time and time again, made her put up with his useless presence on a mission, made her give him warm milk to help him sleep, kissed his forehead like she...like she _cared_.

She had _no_ reason to.

But she did—and what confused him the most was not her.

It was him.

He discovered with her that he liked living this way, being cared for with such affectionate love.

As everyday passed with him following after her like a stray cat, he was content to know that he liked passing the days trying to puzzle her out, liked listening to her hum while she prepared dinner, liked feeling her fingers in his hair as she smiled down at him like _he_ mattered. He liked to feel like he didn't have to die anymore, that death wasn't looming over him anymore, like he didn't need to defend himself from an enemy at every second of every day. It was a sense of calm that he hadn't felt in a very, very long time.

Peace in a way he hadn't experienced it before.

 _This is the way things should be_ , he would find himself thinking whenever she came home with a new book for him to read, a smile on her lips and a new story to tell. Then she'd curl her fingers in his hair and make a mess out of it in a way no one had before.

His father wasn't the type to treat him like a child, had regarded him as an equal since the moment Itachi could take up arms in a battle and survive it. His mother had been a bit better about physical contact but she was busy helping to run the clan and care for Sasuke. Or at least that's what he used to tell himself. He had to admit, though he hated to, that his mother had been intimidated by Itachi. It was clear in the way she treated Itachi versus how she treated her youngest son.

He understood, though a part of him wished he didn't have to.

Itachi was—or had been—the future head of the clan. He was not _her_ son, at least not fully. His life was for the clan, for him to be the man that one day led his family and would take care of _them_. Not the other way around. Sasuke was more hers, and made a more loving child who wouldn't have to become anyone else's. He never resented her for this, had acknowledged it long ago that it just wasn't the way things would be for him.

Then Yugito went and proved him wrong, easily changing the game by treating him so gently.

" _I'm going to be an awful mother_ ," she had said and for a second he had been angry at her for not seeing it. For not seeing what he had refused to admit to himself, for making him think such traitorous thoughts...

( _I wish you were my mother._ )

Then he'd just felt sad, making him realize again that Yugito could never be anything more to him than just a friend. But worse than that was the pain he saw in her eyes. He had never seen it there before, had never seen even an ounce of weakness from her before. She was usually so solid, so strong and sure of herself that it left him stunned. She'd looked near tears, like any second she would break and never be the same again.

 _She has no one_ , his mind had supplied in the moment and he was ashamed of himself all over again because he at least had parents to resent. She had no one, she was all alone.

It was in that moment that he saw her with new eyes, and saw her large expansive apartment with a different feeling. If she weren't always there, by his side, he could only imagine how desolate and how lonely it would be to sit in a room that was entirely too quiet and too big for just one person.

He cherished his time with her more for that and had broken his vow of silence against Kumo-nin just for her.

 _I think you'd be a wonderful mother,_ he wrote, meaning every word, and she'd smiled at him with tears shimmering at the edges of her eyes. It was like she was touching gold, the care she had folded the note up with before slipping it into her pocket.

It had made him ache and feel warm all at the same time.

Bittersweet.

It confused him to feel this way, confused him when he hated the thought of days like those disappearing. They would, of course. Worse things always come eventually, and he knew that it was only a matter of time when he would have to pay for those deaths, for the names etched into his hands through the blood that he had spilt that day and those that came before.

And it scared him because now he had something more than himself to lose.

* * *

**Five Cat Tales - End**

 


	6. Six Paths to Redemption

 

**Six Paths to Redemption**

* * *

"We have a jar!" Yugito announced, pleased with herself as she showed Itachi her prize. They were taking a break at the thirteenth checkpoint, the horses and oxen being watered and fed. Everyone else was taking their lunch break as well and while Itachi was eating his dessert—honeyed dango—she'd been far too busy rooting through the crates and boxes that the Daimyo's son, Ranzāki, had allowed her to look into.

Unsurprisingly, Itachi was not impressed with her.

"No, no," she said earnestly, "you don't understand. I can make sun tea now."

Itachi tilted his head to the side and squinted at her.

She grinned a cat-like grin before rummaging in her thigh pack and holding up tea bags, "Sun tea, y'know? You fill up a jar with water, soak tea leaves in it, and leave it for the sun to heat. I dunno why but it always tastes better that way."

He scoffed and bit into his last dango. Like he didn't believe her. How dare he!?

"Story time," she announced to him with a gleeful smile, getting the jar set up as she talked, "when I was little, you know how I hopped around from family to family? Well, in one of them, I had a grouchy old man as my foster dad. He was a retired shinobi who liked to spend most of his time with the animals in the animal shelter he set up on his own. He was sort of the early to rise, early to bed sort of geezer," she snickered at the memory.

Then, as the pain of recalling him hit her, she sobered up, her smile turning forced before she continued, "He was a difficult person to be around sometimes, gruff and a bit scary but he never lied to me or mistreated me. Instead, he let me play with the animals when I wanted to or after I'd made the rounds in feeding and watering them all. Cheap labor, y'know? Well," she rushed on, finding how tight her throat was suddenly feeling, "he's the one who taught me all kinds of things. Like how to play the shamisen. Didn't know I could play that, did you?"

Itachi shook his head and, after she set the jar to the side and plopped down besides him, she wrapped her arm around his shoulder.

"I'll play for you one day and you'll be totally jealous of my mad skills," she told him, tone quite serious before she released him from her one arm hug. "You'll also be begging me to make sun tea more often, I just know it," she added as she stood and stretched.

He shook his head at her though there was a smile on his face and he looked more amused than anything else.

Yugito help but feel the rush of satisfaction hit her and her stretch became more and more like the efforts of a well fed cat, preening and waiting to be pet.

"My love!" that terrible, terrible voice called out and she immediately snapped to attention to look at Itachi, with mounting horror filling her each second that passed. The longer she hesitated, staring longfully at the lunch she had yet to eat, the more terrible any meeting between her at that prick would be.

"Stall him," she ordered and took off at a sprint heading towards the far end of Ranzāki -san's procession, passing caravans and servants alike as she evaded, again, what had become the bane of her existence.

* * *

Itachi debated whether he should just walk away and leave Yugito to deal with her own love life. That would be the most respectable approach, to let other people handle their own issues. But then Itachi realized that the Daimyo's son was not technically a Kumo-nin and, well, Itachi had some questions for Matozāki . Ones that he could not ask Yugito because she _was_ a Kumo-nin.

That was why, when Matozāki arrived at the place Yugito had just evaded, Itachi looked up at the large, burly man and said, "Hello."

The word came out a bit like a rasp but he was at least heard. Itachi almost expected the man to ignore him—Yugito had built up a rather awful image for Matozāki —but was instead surprised to find that warm brown eyes swiveled to meet him. Itachi blinked, even more stunned when Matozāki grinned with a enthused wave.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully and Itachi squinted at him, confused by the sort of person Yugito had talked about and the sort of person that was standing in front of him.

"My name is Itachi," Itachi said at last, then he nodded to where Yugito had once stood, "I'm her partner."

Matozāki blinked, then he took a visible step back, clearly stunned before he sputtered out, "B-But, you're a kid!"

It took Itachi a second to put himself at a civilian's reference point and when he did, his cheeks got a degree hotter when he realized what he had just insinuated about him and _her_. He coughed, shaking his head, "No, _combat_ partner. We go on missions together..."

Matozāki exhaled an sigh of relief before he came over to slump besides Itachi. The Uchiha shifted uncomfortably, feeling rather out of place around someone who looked like he could rip him to shreds with just the bare useage of hands. Of course, Itachi could easily escape an untrained civilian, but he definitely had not envied the bear hug Yugito had received the first day of travel.

"I'm glad about _that_ then," Matozāki shook his head, looking horrified before he passed his large hands through his long, coarse brown hair, "I don't know what I would do if Yugito-chan liked pretty boys! I know she had a thing for Kirabi-san a while ago, so I went through so much muscle training trying to catch up to my rival!"

Itachi was confused, "She did?"

From what he could recall in his first meeting with Kirabi, Yugito had looked more like a frazzled cat awaiting nothing short of a hurricane. Then she'd called him an idiot, one of many in Kumo. Itachi wasn't the best at reading her, obviously, but he assumed she'd be easier to read then _that_.

"That's the rumor," Matozāki admitted, sighing, "it's not like she's ever told me anything about it herself so I can only assume. Yugito-chan is a hard won woman. I expected a battle for her love but I never thought it would be _this_ hard." He slid his glance towards Itachi, "She doesn't already have someone, does she?"

Itachi was silent for a second, thinking.

"No," he finally said and expected a large cheer, something boisterous and loud.

Matozāki did not do that. Instead, he flushed bright red, his shoulders drawing closer to his head as he squirmed where he sat. Then, so softly Itachi almost missed it, " _Good_."

Itachi blinked, unsure of what to say next.

"Hn," he allowed, just to keep the conversation going. Itachi wasn't—though he hated to admit to being bad at anything—the best at conversation. He could listen well, could take down information and memorize it, but he couldn't usually connect with other people through words alone. He just never knew what to say, never knew how to speak casually with a friend or how to choose words that didn't feel wrong somehow. Shisui had been the closest he had ever gotten and even then...

He knew that it made others around him uncomfortable. Itachi, unfortunately, just couldn't give anything more than his skill at listening. It was all he'd ever been trained to give.

Matozāki didn't seem to mind, he just clapped a meaty hand on Itachi's back and laughed, "So what did she tell you about me?"

 _This is comparable to a minefield_ , Itachi thought, sliding a doubtful glance up to Matozāki .

The message was clear.

The Daimyo's son turned sheepish, scratching at the back of his head and bobbing his head in understanding, "I was pretty awful as a kid. I keep trying to get better and to repair those mistake but..." Matozāki shook his head, bringing his hands to his front, clasping them together, "redemption is not an easy path. It's why not many people bother to take it."

 _Redemption_.

The word echoed in Itachi's mind and he couldn't help but tilt his head up towards to look at Matozāki with new eyes.

"What do you mean?" Itachi asked, wondering why he heart was suddenly beating so fast and why he felt so nervous. He swept his gaze around where they were but found no clear threats.

"It's something the monks teach," Matozāki said with a smile, "we all do terrible things but some never learn and continue to do wrong. Tānība-san says that those are the people that are too afraid to face that they weren't right. He says that only the brave can face the truth and rise above what they used to be."

"He says many things," Itachi murmured absentmindedly, trying not to feel so tense and physically making his body relax.

"He does, and a lot of it isn't from the scriptures," Matozāki shrugged, "He told me that it was because he learns his wisdom from his experiences and wishes to teach others that we don't have to be what society made us into. He used to be a terrible man, it's said, but you would never expect it when you meet him," Matozāki slid his glance towards Itachi, looking thoughtful, "His story is actually rather well known but it doesn't seem like you've heard it? Strange for a Kumo-nin."

Itachi tried not to wince and instead said, "I'm an immigrant."

Matozāki hummed his understanding before grinning, "Then do you want to hear of it?"

Itachi nodded without thinking.

The story was a common one in many ways but no less impacting.

Years before the Second Shinobi World War, Tānība had been a Kumo-nin, and one of the deadliest and most ruthless. He killed indiscriminately, even when he didn't need to, helped raid villages and ended lives left and right just for the fun of it. He got used to the power high he held over others and had even challenged the Sandaime Raikage to battle, losing it but boasting about how close it had been. It got to the point that Kumo no longer wanted anything to do with him, disgusted with his actions and his misuse of power—something Kumo ironically believed should be treated with respect.

Tānība was surprised. He had thought he was doing only what any other Kumo-nin would, thought that he was an important shinobi for the military. He was wrong. Without a flow of income to support himself and his family, a wife and a daughter, he turned to crime and at one point had been so rich, he had gotten a gold life-sized statue made of his wife. But then Kumo had found him and issued a mission for his death, realizing that they had been wrong to think that they could just ignore his ilk.

They never got to him but they got to his wife and daughter, killed by excruciatingly painful means, they died of their injuries in his arms. After defeating the shinobi sent after him, he escaped to a run down village and wept. It was his wake up call, the death of his loved ones had made him realize what he could have long ago. He had killed many others loved ones, had only brought misery and pain to a world filled so much with it. Tānība had planned to kill himself to atone but a young girl, one from the poor village, had kept him from it.

She told him how he had been the one to kill her father and mother, to orphan her. He had asked, eyes blurred by tears, if she wanted to do the honors. Instead, she had slapped him, crying out, "You don't get to take the easy way out! You have to pay for your mistakes and you can only do that if you live long enough to actually make a difference! Give away your riches, become a monk, I don't care, but help others _rise_ , don't tear them _down_. And then, if it's _ever_ enough, you can start to forgive yourself for being such a failure."

Humbled by her strong words, he had given her all of his worldly possessions to do what she thought best. Then he went and became a monk, to fulfill his promise to her. Ever since, that village had been prosperous and well respected, with low tolerance for crime. The name of it changed by the time the Third Shinobi World War reared its head, after the girl who had grown into a powerful leader and died protecting a child from Konoha-nin. The entirety of Rai no Kuni still mourned her death, her actions and fiercely proud words still making waves with Tānība as her mouthpiece, like she was almost some sort of deity figure. The Goddess of Lost Souls, she was sometimes referred to.

Now he was an old man, respected now, despite all the wrongs he had done. Many flocked to him for his teachings, which he freely gave no matter the hour. He broke bread with all kinds of people and was known most for his way with children and ability to get them to listen to their parents. It was said he could make even the most hardened criminal weep for hours. In a land that heralded power, where the danger of falling to abuse it was strongest, Tānība had become an unwavering light to those who sought redemption and he never turned anyone away.

"I went to him after my fight with Yugito-chan," Matozāki admitted, "Like Chiasaki-sama had been for Tānība-san, she was my wake up call. Before, I hadn't even realized what I was doing was even wrong of me. I just acted in the best way to get attention," he shook his head, looking miserable, "I was a stupid boy and I've hurt a lot of people, I make no excuses for what I did."

"Why do you love her?" Itachi asked, surprising himself that he could be so forward. Usually it took a while for him to work his way towards anything in a conversation. He'd been a fly on the wall for most of his existence, not anyone who knew the right way to speak and obtain information.

But Matozāki didn't seem to mind. Instead, he smiled while scratching at his nose, blushing in a way that would have been humorous in any other circumstance. It was just weird to see a big hulking man be so much more like a puppy.

"Like I said, she was my wake up call," Matozāki shook his head, turning to look to Itachi seriously, "When I was younger, I was really sensitive to the way people treated me. I hated that they treated me so differently just because of who my dad just so happened to be. I wanted to be treated like the others but instead only knew how to push them away. I said horrible things, bullied anyone who was around to be hurt and when I met her, I told her some awful things. Others had ignored me or had just taken it. But not her. She snapped, gave me a good beating and told me that I was human trash. Then she had asked, not even waiting for me to reply, if I ever thought for myself.

"Which confused me because hadn't I been doing that all along?" Matozāki continued, frowning, "I wanted to ask her what she meant but after that she always had a gang of oddly dressed monkeys around that kept me from it. It was because of them that I came to understand what she had meant. If I was was truly thinking for myself, then I wouldn't need to ask what she meant at all, because I could have just told her yes or no. It wasn't a question to think over at all. Bit of a contradiction, I think, but it suits her. That's why I love her too. She exists as a contradiction."

"Hn," Itachi intoned, furrowing his brows, "What do you mean?"

"She's strong yet she looks weak. She covers her face and yet it's hard to miss her. She speaks harshly yet she's the kindest soul I've ever met. Yugito-chan is never just one thing, there's always more to her than what you see on the outside. I," Matozāki blushed furiously here, "I want to be the first one to understand her completely."

Yet it was impossible.

Itachi had a very strong feeling that Yugito could never be understood, at least not entirely. There was always something more, something hidden beneath everything that only a very, very special person could ever uncover.

He looked at Matozāki , a man who had done everything he could to change himself and rewrite the past, and what he see was not someone Yugito could give her heart to. Itachi almost pitied the him, the fact that the girl he wanted to impress the most would never turn to look at him. He looked at her and what he saw was not an easily won heart, instead he knew that she was the kind of girl who had barriers upon barriers protecting her.

Now, as he gazed at Matozāki pityingly, he wondered just who the special person would be that made the walls in her come down.

* * *

It was a week into travel when it happened.

Yugito had been doing all she could to avoid The Prick, stunned when Itachi seemed to be _helping_ him get closer and closer each time. It was not good for her nerves. Though, she had to admit, she was getting in a nice practice for her evasion skills so it wasn't all bad. But still, when was he just going to get it into his skull and realize he didn't have a shot?

She was entertaining the thought of finally confronting him about it, to try and put an end to it all, when they crossed into the first village that they had seen for a full day of travel. This made it even easier to shove that idea aside for being really stupid, and instead of letting her entertain it, she instead went ahead to check up on the only teammates actually doing their damn job.

Itsuki Ishida, chūnin and a bit of a brat, was still young to be bossed around and have no way to retaliate that wouldn't come off as being immature. Yugito liked to tease her the most and had become quite a pest to her over the span of the week.

"So," she started, watching the black haired girl stiffen and turn with a forced polite smile, "anything to report?"

"Nothing at all, _Nii-san_ ," Itsuki said, as if it would bother her to be called big brother just by being addressed with her last name. It didn't—mostly because it wasn't a real last name, or at least not a family name. Kumo wasn't too big on clan names or for any one family having all the power. Instead, individuals were respected more for their personal merit than any one with the family ties to go far in life. Mostly, last names weren't even used when they were there. Keigo just wasn't a real thing in Kumo, aside from the usage of a few honorifics.

Yugito's grin turned cat-like, her teeth being bared, "Keep your eyes open then. I saw you slipping the other day before we left the last checkpoint."

Itsuki flushed bright red, her dark skin looking as if it had been sunburnt, "Understood, _Nii-san_."

"Right then, _imōto_. Carry on."

Then, ignoring an indignant cry with a cackle, Yugito sprang away and moved towards where she had last stationed Hatora. The chūnin was the closest to a promotion, could already be classified as a tokubetsu jōnin if one paid attention only to his sensing abilities. She was glad that he was on her team the most so that, in the case they were ever attacked, Hatora could alert her before things turned to worse. Yugito's heightened senses weren't anything to scoff at, of course, but certain things tended to be overlooked when she was in a crowd.

Hatora looked at her before she announced herself—always a good sign he was the real deal—and smiled.

"Matozāki -san still giving you problems?" he asked and she found herself turning red.

"Unfortunately," she admitted, accepting a sucker from him when he offered, "so, anything suspicious so far?"

"Nothing more than the wild life," Hatora said softly, speaking around the blue sucker in his mouth, "though a while back I did get some signatures of genin. I think we scared them off."

"Good," she said, maneuvering around the cloth over her mouth and popping the sucker in her mouth, then brightening, "ooh, watermelon!"

"You said you hate cherry," he explained, smiling.

"You remembered?" Yugito was stunned, "That was, like, two years ago!"

"You're rather memorable," he noted, making her face flush.

She was glad for her bandanna then, more so than ever. Still, she did recheck to see if it was still holding properly. Then she was suddenly confused. Was he...was he _flirting_ with her?

Hatora was older than her by three years and had never made much of a big impression to her. He was often times like her, just there. There wasn't anything particularly spectacular about him and the only interesting thing about him was his uncanny ability to always have sweets on him. She supposed, by looks alone, he was something to be desired but she'd never really thought about it before.

This whole thing with That Prick was really getting to her, making her jump to silly conclusions. Ugh.

Yugito chuckled, forcing a smile as she looked into Hatora's striking blue eyes, "I suppose a jinchūriki always is."

"No," he objected instantly, surprising her and making himself blush, his dark skin looking all the more beautiful on him, "I mean, it's not that. It's _you_. People remember you 'cause you're _you_."

Yugito blinked rapidly, truly flabbergasted and left stunned. Trying to make sense of her sudden clamoring thoughts, she asked with the most intelligent thing she could manage to get out, "W-What?"

"Didn't you know?" Hatora asked, grey brows lifting in surprise, "Everyone talks about you all the time. How cool you are on the field, how kind you are to the strays, how you always visit the hospital and bring gifts. I mean, you even visit _me_ and I know that I'd like to be, but we aren't really all that close. It's amazing, I think, how caring you really are. Towards _everyone_." Then, as if he were suddenly realizing all that he said, his blush deepened and he looked away, "Uh, sorry. Had to get that off my chest, I guess. Hope it doesn't make things awkward."

 **This is this human's way of confessing** , Matatabi helpfully provided. Yugito was really too confused to think anything else.

"Um," she started out with dumbly, "no, not awkward."

"Good," he said, not meaning it.

Then there was silence.

Awkward silence.

"Thank you," she finally said after the pregnant pause, not sure what else to say, "I really appreciate it."

He nodded.

"Well," she jumped up, "I need to go...think."

 **That was cute** , Matatabi commented, **you should give him a chance** _ **.**_

Yugito sighed, shaking her head as she walked away.

_No way, not when I'll be dying before I hit thirty._

Matatabi was silent at that, leaving Yugito to fret over what might have been nothing.

"Yugito-chan?" a voice asked, taking her out from her thoughts and making her jump in surprise.

That wasn't a very good show of being a vigilant ninja, so instead of running from the man she'd been evading the whole week, she stood to attention and looked at him with a mixture of trepidation and expectation.

That Prick didn't rush her like she had been expecting him to, however, so she was left more with the unease of being around him. He was smiling at her and it was surprisingly cute, his face looking oddly childish on his large frame. That was when she noticed the kids swinging from his arms and hanging around his neck.

She blinked and was oddly thankful that the children was there to protect her from any sort of physical assault.

But she was confused. What was a group of kids doing hanging off of someone she could only relate to being the dirt at the bottom of her boots? She squinted at him, tensing. He was smiling still, paying more attention to waving his arms gently as the kids whooped and hollered their shared joy at climbing the giant.

"Matozāki -san?" his name slipped out from her in her state of confused disarray and she flushed when he met her gaze again.

His grin grew in size but before he responded to her, he set the kids off and gave them soft dismissals. They mourned the loss of their swing but went off with the promise of coming back to find him later after dinner.

Yugito was still deeply suspicious.

"Y-You're different..." she trailed off, not where whether to make that a statement or a question. It was a mixture of the two.

He scratched at the back of his head, flushing as brightly as she had, "Yeah, I've been doing my best to be. I hope it's a good different."

She made an odd sound in the back of her throat, something like a distressed grunt. Yugito kept expecting him to start yelling at her, cussing her out and criticizing a choice she never made in the first place. But he didn't, instead he just awkwardly stood there with her.

 **You're popular today** , Matatabi noted.

Yugito resented it.

"I've been sending you letters," he said finally, with a sad smile, "but I guess you haven't been reading them. I don't blame you," he added quickly, "I was really awful to you at that time and I forgot to say it when I confessed to you but I _am_ sorry."

"Okay," she murmured, still reeling from the shock that he wasn't actually behaving like a prick.

"Sorry for you hugging you for so long that one time too," he continued, his face turning a bright shade of red, "and for kissing you. I was just really happy to see you. I mean, it's been so long and you've changed a bit but I just saw you and before I knew it, I was already moving. Sorry that I scared you again."

"Oh," she shifted uncomfortably, "um, okay."

Damn, why did she suck so much at situations like this!? Even Hatora's confession, which had happened just a few minutes prior, could have gone better.

This was a nightmare and she wasn't waking up.

"I know I'm not worthy of you yet," he surprised her by saying, and he looked at her earnestly, his words holding power as he continued, "You're just so strong, so beautiful and powerful. You represent all the things in the world that I like best and you have really cute teeth when you smile, but I've only seen it that one time when we were twelve. I've heard about you from other people and you never fail, ever. You are one of the fiercest kunoichi this world has ever seen and still, you're always so kind to everyone. I really did fall in love with you then, and I've never liked anyone but you and—."

"Okay!" she suddenly snapped, holding up her hand to stop him, her eyes unable to meet his, "I get it already! I accept your apology. Work hard, I guess, power of youth. Um, I have to go now. See you, uh, later, I think."

Then, before he could say another word and continue to make her lose her cool, Yugito bounded off to find her other teammate, Itachi.

He never said a word so she didn't think she'd have to worry about any sudden confessions from _him_. Hah. Even the thought was ridiculous, so much so that she laughed hysterically—and a bit madly—before she looked around to try and spot him.

She squinted, her eyes narrowing on a black haired boy standing next to a tall white-haired man with thick red markings on his face. The man looked strangely familiar and was that _really_ Itachi?

It was then, with a bit of sinking realization that made her feel a sudden rush of confused devastation, she understood what she was seeing so far away.

Itachi was speaking with Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin, and the Spymaster himself.

Her eyes widened, her heart began to beat furiously, and she was afraid she would cry. She froze instead, feeling—for the first time—truly betrayed.

* * *

 _Go away, go away, go away_ , Itachi found himself begging as he met Jiraiya's gaze.

The Konoha-nin was smiling casually at him, as if he had no idea of his thoughts, no idea just how much Itachi resented him being there.

"So have you really switched sides?" the toad summoner asked, smiling good naturedly, "You're even going on missions with a Kumo hitai-ate around your neck. It doesn't suit you."

Itachi glanced down at his issued headband. It was something he hated wearing but had relented for Yugito's sake when she'd commented that it would be 'cute' on him, like some sort of cat collar. It made him slightly uncomfortable to be wearing the Kumo symbol but if he related all good things that Kumo had to offer to _her_ , he had an easier time.

He was already like some sort of pet to her.

Still, as much as Itachi didn't like being treated like a Kumo-nin, he was beginning to dislike the remainder of their differences even more. He was a Konoha-nin, first and foremost—but not here. Not with her around, not when she had told him he didn't need to do anything he didn't want to.

 _Please don't make me do what I think you're going to make me do_ , Itachi begged Jiraiya with his thoughts. He could never say it in person. He could never say anything like that to anyone because then the orders would come and he would carry them out anyway.

"I know," he said instead, and it made him feel ill, a sudden reminder that he had only been lying to himself the entire time he had been in Yugito's care. Itachi looked away from Jiraiya then, and to his empty hands instead. Rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, he was suddenly struck with how long his nails had gotten. Usually he was better at trimming them, to be better at throwing kunai and shuriken. But for a while he hadn't had to do anything of the sort and it was beginning to show.

"Are you still a Konoha-nin?" Jiraiya asked then, cutting to the chase, his voice dipping lower.

Itachi didn't speak the words but he did nod. Then he glanced around himself, somehow feeling an odd sense of guilt as he looked self consciously around for Yugito. She was nowhere in sight but it did nothing to help relieve him of the shame he was feeling. He didn't...understand.

Suddenly, Itachi snapped, his body going stiffer and his thoughts racing. He wanted Jiraiya gone and he wanted him gone _now_. He didn't want to dance around a subject that he knew all too well already, didn't want to behave as if nothing was wrong and that he suddenly wasn't _hurting_.

 _I'm going to be crushed_ , he thought to himself, _this time between Kumo and Konoha._

One, a place he had called home for his entire life. The other, a place with _her_ in it and with people that had never treated him with anything less than the utmost respect, even when he acted the brat. He ground his teeth together, realizing that there were tears in his eyes that he refused to show, refused to admit were there.

"You want me to spy for you on Kumo then?" Itachi asked even when he _knew_ , he _knew_ that was what Jiraiya would want. It was the only reason why he would be there, standing right besides him in the open like everything was fine when it was _not_.

Nothing. Was. Fine.

"Yes," Jiraiya said bluntly, sounding tired, "I hate to ask it of you, after how much you've given of yourself already but from the intel I already have, you're the closest to the jinchūriki, who is in turn, close to the Raikage and Kirabi. It would be a great help, if you could send any information you can my way. The whole village will be thankful."

 _No_ , Itachi corrected, _they will not care to know how they got the information, only that they have it. You don't thank information for existing._

"Understood," he said instead, because he already proven to himself who he was. A betrayer, the worst kind.

The kind that chose strangers over loved ones.

* * *

**Six Paths to Redemption - End**

 


	7. Seven First Times (& One Lucky Cat)

  **Seven First Times ( & One Lucky Cat)**

* * *

 _He hates me_ , Yugito realized and was left stunned by how much pain that caused her.

Well, what did she expect? Itachi didn't have any reason to like her. He only tolerated her, and it was clear now. She had been blind, had thought for a bit that he was with her less out of convenience and more for _her_ but she had been wrong. Yugito had been covering for him for the past months, had been lying on mission reports saying what a good job he was doing and how much of a help he was to the village. Actually _lying_ for him but he'd only been using her and she'd _let_ him use her. All because she'd been under the impression that maybe, just a bit, he was thankful he'd ended up with her as a goddamn baby sitter.

But no, she'd only been lying to herself because of how _lonely_ she was—and that was ironic!

She'd just been confessed to by two people, and she had the gall to say she was _lonely_. What had she been doing her entire life? Now it all looked so childish and silly. She'd cried over wanting someone to be there and understand her but she pushed away anyone who wanted to try—and for what? Because she was destined to die before she reached thirty?

At least she would get around to _reaching_ it. Many died before then, it was the way of life for shinobi.

But she'd just been so blind, so shortsighted that she hadn't _seen_ it.

Yugito wanted to cry, to sob, to threaten the world with the power that lay at the tip of her fingers, to _hurt_ someone in the same way that she hurt. She never thought it would be so terrible, that it could be so painful for someone to turn their back on you. Everything else she'd ever endured had been so different. There had been no masks to cover what Kumo was doing to her, they'd never pretended to be on her side. This was a new kind of pain, an ache that echoed through her chest and made it very hard to think. It was like she had an unreciprocated friendship.

The thought sent her laughing because of how terribly unfunny it was.

It got her thinking—did Hatora and Matozāki feel this awful? Had she caused that by being so flippant with their feelings? Could she have handled it any differently?

She didn't know, didn't know if they hurt worse because the love was a different type or if her behavior had affected it at all. It was a sort of irony that no matter how _she_ —the object of their apparent affection—reacted, they would still feel the same because she just couldn't reciprocate. Not in the way they wanted of her.

Yugito had spent too much time tricking herself into pretending she was okay by herself.

Itachi was the new prick who had ruined everything.

He found her later that evening, just in time for dinner, and she said nothing to him. She hurt too much to speak as if she were fine. He was a silent as ever and for the first time in a very long time, they shared a meal in silence. It was worse when she realized she wasn't doing what she should obviously be doing; sending a message to the Raikage of at least the presence of Jiraiya, even if he couldn't exactly do anything. They were at peace time, he was _allowed_ to be in the Land of Lightning, though it would serve to keep an extra eye on Itachi.

So why wasn't she doing it already?

 _I need more information_ , she thought to herself the weak excuse, the niggling feeling of hope that she was actually wrong about all that she was thinking.

Yugito sipped her sun tea and the ache only festered, adding on the old wounds as she thought about the only real father figure in her life. He had been just another family she was tossed into and his wife hadn't cared much for her, but he had been different than all the others. He taught her things, interesting things, like the best ways to pet a cat or the many reasons why sun tea tasted so much better than boiled water.

 _It's natural_ , he had told her.

She was forced to agree as she blinked away tears and took another sweet swallow.

_It's the sun's heat that makes it tastes like a bit of life, like we're drinking a bit of the warmth that breathed life into us._

_The warmth that breathed life into us?_ She had echoed, intrigued by the weird phrase, always intrigued by the things he had to say.

 _Oh?_ He had smiled at her then, had touched the crown of her head and leaned down to meet her eyes. _Didn't you know? The sun is the reason we exist at all, silly girl, and it just keeps on giving. Kind of like you._

Then he'd kissed her forehead.

Now he was gone.

Yugito had never cried on a mission before.

Itachi was also gone, asleep in his bed while she took the first watch.

She wiped the wetness from her cheeks and drank from her cup again, smiling.

* * *

Yugito was oddly quiet but Itachi only registered this mutely, too wrapped up in his own thoughts to fully take the time to wonder why. He suspected it had something to do with Matozāki, since the man had stopped his frequent visits and instead waited for Yugito to come to him. Surprisingly, she did. Every once in awhile, usually when Itachi drowning in his unanswerable questions, she would slip off and he could see her with Matozāki.

They continued to travel, had been attacked once—something Yugito had single-handedly put a stop to. She'd been relentless as she incapacitated the enemy, tied them up, and left them with the police in the nearest village. The servants and all of the other add-ons to the journey were still crowing over how cool she had looked, like some sort of figure out of a book.

Itachi had to admit that he thought she looked pretty cool in action too, but would never say it to her face.

Not that he said anything to her. Not that he _wanted_ to say anything to her. He wouldn't even know what to say if he did. He liked their relationship as it was, liked the easy way she let him be, liked that she never pressured him to do anything more than be her constant companion.

 _I'm betraying that_.

He was too consumed in the thought that he was betraying her, in a way he had never been so bothered before. Not even with family, strangely enough, did he feel this awful when the orders were given. Killing he was used to, it was an act he knew well, something that he had grown accustomed to dealing with over the years. Taking a life and watching it bleed away, watching the end of everything and realizing that it was something he'd meet soon enough.

Spying was also something he was good at—he hasn't been an ANBU Captain for no reason. He'd excelled at covert operations, knew all the best ways to hide in the shadows and to glean information with a skill that had only been rivaled by Jiraiya the Sannin himself. There was a reason the village had used him against his own family, a reason they counted on him and a reason his clan had too.

In many ways, he hated spying more than killing.

At least death was _natural_. Spying was not, it was the distinctive act of deceit and was never anything less than a betrayal. Itachi had done it easily throughout the years and when his father had approached him with the hopes of him doing it against the village, he hadn't thought it would be so awful. He'd truly thought it would be like all of those other successful missions that he had run in the past—a way for him to try and understand the village and his clan's matters more personally, to try and discover a means of putting a stop to that awful, _awful_ gut feeling.

Then the Hokage himself had scouted him once the rumors of a coup started surfacing.

That was when things changed, the moment Itachi truly grasped his role and learned to _hate_ it.

Now, in a different situation entirely, he was realizing more and more that nothing had changed. Not really. The idea that it had was only an illusion that had been too painful to ruin. A genjutsu of the worst kind, one that was instigated by the mind and not by any other outside forces.

Itachi felt disgusted with himself, and it wasn't for the first time.

"What are you so down for?" Matozāki asked, sliding up next to him. He was sweating from the harsh heat of the sun. With a vague sort of realization, Itachi recalled that it was now July and his birthday had passed right under his nose without him even knowing. He was fourteen now and he hadn't changed at all. Only the number.

"Do you think I can be redeemed?" Itachi asked, and he hadn't even noticed that the words passed his lips at all. He'd just been thinking it, reminded by Matozāki's presence of an old man that had once been the killer that had been shunned by his village. How similar to his own situation, Itachi noted with a muted sort of wonder.

The sun's heat was affecting his brain.

Matozāki was blinking and Itachi didn't know why.

"I think everyone can be," he said.

It was Itachi's turn to blink.

"Oh," he said, realizing that he had, in fact, spoke the question out loud.

"Hey, we're actually getting close to the temple," Matozāki informed him, looking worried, "it's actually in Chiasakigakure, you know. You should visit Tānība-san while we're there..."

Itachi hummed in agreement, "Maybe I will."

He did.

They drew up to the village hours later and Yugito had gone off to check with the others, still eerily quiet and it was beginning to worry him, beginning to make him feel anxious. He felt ill again, back to feeling like dirt and not at all like the unfeeling mask he had been under the heat of the sun.

Now he was standing over stone, staring up at the stairs and feeling a sense of awful foreboding that something terrible would happen to him. The people that met him were all relatively friendly, smiling at him with warm, kind eyes as they asked him how his journey had been. He'd been honest, he told them it could have gone better.

Then they led him to a man, sitting in a chair with a cup of steaming tea in his hand. He smiled upon Itachi's entrance and grey eyes met his. He looked every bit what Itachi had imagined. A large frame, one that hadn't seemed to deteriorate despite the age of his weathered, dark skin. He had a mustache, styled with a goatee and it was grey with flecks of black like someone had peppered it for him. The closer Itachi neared him, the more he picked up on the smell of ink and rock that matched the chipped, black nails of man that had never managed to get the ink stain out of his skin.

A writer, it looked like, because he'd seen hands like those on Jiraiya.

The thought distracted Itachi, sent him rolling back into those dark thoughts and now he stood before a man he was beginning to wish he'd never met.

"And your name is?" Tānība asked, his voice soft and not unkind. He was a touch surprised—he had been expecting something harsher, something to match this man's history.

"My name is Itachi Uchiha," he said honestly, without thinking and watched their faces morph, watched recognition cross their eyes and watched Tānība jerk back like he had been stung. Itachi's stomach dropped and he dipped his head in shame. This was the perfect reaction to his name for everything he had done in his life.

He remembered now, of course—Konoha-nin had been responsible for the death of Chiasaki, the backbone of an entire village. _This_ village.

"You may claim to be a Kumo-nin now," the old man said in a rasping growl, "but Konoha-nin will never be accepted at this temple. You need to leave."

Itachi hadn't known what he should have expected but it hadn't been this.

 _He's never turned anyone away_ , Matozāki had said but there was always a first time for everything and it was so fitting that it would be him.

Something stirred in him then, making him begin to shake and there he stood with the weight of all of their eyes on him, with the weight of his choices and of all those names etched into his bloodied hands. He looked at them now, noted the way they looked so immaculately pale. The red he felt there was not seen but it was _there,_ it was _there_.

It was all so _wrong_ , everything he'd done in his life, everything he'd tried to stop but just _couldn't_. He didn't know what to say, what he could do to take it all back or to pay for the fact that he had _killed so many_.

" _Please_ ," Itachi begged and it had been for the first time in his life, first time he'd ever dared say the word. It was less like he was speaking to Tānība and more like he was speaking to them all. His father, the Hokage, his mother, his brother, _Shisui._ " _Don't make me._ "

None of them were even there to hear it.

He hadn't even realized he had started to cry until Tānība reached over and used rough fingers to wipe them away. By that point it was like something had been broken inside him. He was trying to fix it, he was. He was trying to stop the tears that were beginning to soak the front of his shirt, but he _couldn't_ and now he was being led away from the sharp, hateful gazes that reminded him so much of what he knew he could expect if he ever returned home.

Itachi struggled to breathe, desperately wiped at his eyes and his face like a kid who had lost their favorite toy. Like how Sasuke had been when he'd lost his.

He'd never done this before, never cried so much and in front of _strangers_.

He was not at all acting like a fourteen year old ANBU Captain. Instead he was behaving like _Sasuke_ , like the boy Itachi had used to desperately try to cheer up just so he could get back to his reading. Now he understood why it took so long for Sasuke to stop—tears were messy business and they didn't just _stop_.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to Tānība as they both came to a spot somewhere outdoors. Itachi wasn't afraid for his life though he supposed he should be—one way to stop someone from crying was to end them so there was that thought.

Itachi laughed, despite himself but it sounded more like a sob.

Everything coming out of him sounded like a sob.

"No," Tānība said and it made him take pause as he looked up to the old man through blurred vision, "I should be the one apologizing. I should have never tried to turn you away. Chiasaki would never have done it and though I hate Konoha with a living passion, she always did tell me how much of an idiot I was for it. People aren't the villages they come from, they're much more than that, she'd always say, and that it was something I should learn to respect. Then she'd slap me, usually because that was her favorite hobby."

"Oh," was all Itachi could say, still working on getting his body to listen to him.

Sasuke's speed at getting his tears to stop now seemed to be made more impressive by Itachi's new found experience with them.

"Forgive me?" Tānība asked.

Itachi blinked then nodded slowly, "I-I don't know what came over me. I don't usually..."

Then he began to blush quite furiously because another thing Matozāki had said came back to him, clear as day.

_They say he can make the most hardened criminals weep for hours._

It, clearly, was not an unfounded rumor—and Tānība had done it just by presence alone. It was a terrifying and awe-inspiring talent.

"Water under the bridge as they say," Tānība rubbed at the back of his neck, looking sheepish, "I won't tell on you if you don't tell on me?"

"Okay..." Itachi said and then he was hiccuping.

At first, he was confused because he _never_ hiccuped. For a second he hadn't even known what his body was doing, just that he was doing it and feeling oddly uncomfortable by the point it happened the third time. Then, when realization hit him, he cursed inwardly.

He'd been feeling more distracted lately, sure, but that made no excuse for him not knowing what _hiccups_ were. It was...shameful.

Tānība left for a second and returned with a glass of water.

"If you drink for ten seconds without taking a breath, it should take those away," Tānība explained to him and Itachi felt downright silly being treated like a kid. Then he reminded himself that he hadn't even remembered what _hiccups_ were, so he really had no room to talk. He hadn't been behaving much like an adult lately anyway.

Itachi accepted the water with a mumbled thanks and did as told.

The strange tip worked and he was beginning to feel more himself, more sure, and less...whatever that had been.

"So, what is it that you came here for anyway?" Tānība asked and Itachi shrugged.

"I was on a mission for the Daimyo's son, Ranzāki-san, and his brother, Matozāki-san, mentioned you," Itachi met the man's gaze, "I presume you've already heard of me."

"Yeah," Tānība was back to scratching at his head, looking about as awkward as Itachi felt, "that you sort of snapped and killed half your clan and that you defected to Kumo soon afterwards."

He nodded, having expected nothing less, then he took another sip of the cool water. He was quiet for a second, still attempting to gather his thoughts in something that was more than the panicked mess they had become.

Somehow, he felt better now—a bit of the weight had shifted on him, still there but not as painful.

Tānība, who had gone off somewhere while Itachi had gone silent, returned with a shamisen in one hand and a bag of breadcrumbs in another.

"Matozāki-san is one of my biggest fans," Tānība said conversationally before gesturing for Itachi to follow him, "so I'm not surprised he mentioned me to you."

"He suggested I come see you," Itachi said softly, trailing after the monk before they both came to a bench by a large—man-made by the look of it—pond. It was filled to the gills with koi fish, happily splashing around as they crowded together with open expectation as soon as they noticed their visitors.

"Can I ask one question?" Tānība asked and Itachi didn't bother trying to be an asshole about it though the option was clearly presented to him.

"Sure," he said instead.

"Did you do it because you really snapped or because you wanted to do it?"

"Neither," Itachi whispered and then more fiercer, his spirit blazing inside of him, " _neither_."

It wasn't the full truth but it had been the closest to it that he had ever gotten to and it felt good to say, felt good to admit that he'd wanted nothing to do with any of what he'd been trapped into. He'd been too much of a coward to betray them both, of course, so he had made the "easy" choice, the one with the most lives attached.

It was odd and strange but in the presence of a man who had defied expectations laid onto him and had redeemed himself so fully, Itachi wanted to believe that he could do that too.

That there was a chance for him, that he could somehow repay the world for the lives he'd taken from it.

"Do you believe I can be redeemed?" Itachi asked, this time on purpose as he gazed at a man who had done what he had once thought impossible.

Tānība shrugged, "Depends on how hard you work for it. Even now I have much to do, so that I can repay a little girl who's not around to see it anymore. I can't answer that question definitively because, ultimately, it's a question for you to answer. Chiasaki always liked to say that the first step to redemption was realizing that there was something you needed to pay back. So I'd say you're well on your way towards it."

Itachi nodded, then considered his words, "What are the other steps?"

Tānība grinned then, "Depends on you. To quote that marvelous woman once again, she always said that if you wanted to repay others, it must be through hard work, true dedication, and a recognition that there is something in the world that _you_ can help improve. The meaning for your existance, the reason for which you do anything at all. She believed everyone had one, the point of life was to find it and there wasn't a single person in this world without worth."

"Chiasaki-san," Itachi started, smiling despite himself, "believed the best in people."

"That girl," Tānība started, setting his shamisen aside and opening up the bag of crumbs, "believed in humanity until the day she died. I doubt she even blamed the Konoha-nin that killed her. She'd just be glad that her daughter survived the attack at all."

 _Oh_ , Itachi thought, recalling the fact that Chiasaki had died protecting a girl. Her daughter then. It made everything so much sadder then.

"What makes a bad person bad?" Itachi finally asked, settling on a question he'd always wondered but had never voiced. He'd never felt comfortable enough to.

Tānība didn't ridicule him for a question he probably received a lot in his line of work. Instead, he settled onto the bench more heavily, the air around him turning thoughtful.

"When we are born," Tānība started, tossing out crumbs to the koi in the pond, "we have done nothing wrong, aside from spitting up and making our guardians go tone deaf with our screams," a soft chuckle, "Eventually, as we grow up, we're told certain things are wrong and certain things are right. That," Tānība cued this with a cluck of his tongue, "gets pretty dang confusing after a while. Why, some will ask, are these things wrong and things things right? Who made that so? Why did they make it so? Some won't ask, they will accept. These people are often the most lucky in life," Tānība gave a roll of his eyes, "and it makes the ones who dare to ask _miserable_ and confused, mostly the latter. Which I don't find very fair. Do you?"

"Asking is a form of questioning the lesson and the first step in going against it," Itachi murmured, watching an orange koi fish open up its mouth wide, expecting some sort of offering. "It only makes sense that the people who follow the lesson will get the better marks." Itachi wondered where he fell into the mix, if he was truly on either side.

He had often questioned many things when growing up but he had soon learned not to voice his thoughts, to hide himself from the world or else suffer for it. He followed the rules, true, but when he went against his nature to solve the puzzles presented to him—he suffered for it then too.

"Perceptive boy," Tānība commented, "but I suspect that you're one of those rare souls, aren't you?"

Itachi looked up, met those old grey eyes, and tilted his head to the side, questions on his lips but not sure how to word it.

"You exist in a grey area," he said to him by way of explanation, "you have been unfortunate to fall in the middle, and the box that has been molded for the majority will never suit you. Because of that you will suffer more than others ever will, always out of place and yet trying to change enough to fit in. People like you realize that you must follow the order of the world but the choices that it brings will always torment you because you recognize what else could be there. You will ask questions, you will keep them to yourself. You will have dreams but you will not voice them or give them life. You slip into that grey area and you slip into the cracks of what is right and wrong, there is no mold that will ever truly fit you. So my advice to you, Itachi Uchiha, is not to ask what is wrong and what is right. It is to ask what is, what isn't, and most importantly, what _could_ be."

Itachi let this sink in and hated to know that it was the truth.

"It's not all bad for you," Tānība said, his voice soft, and his hand played a gentle tune with the strings of the shamisen, "because the rare souls that exist in the grey? They have the greatest reward of all. Unlike others, they are always the ones that can make a true difference because that's what they dare to be, different. Yet I will say, the price of that is that it becomes easier for them to fall, to bring evil into the world instead. The struggle for you will be using your grey thoughts and using them to make a change that will help us all. Like Chiasaki. She was the greyest soul I've ever met and look at what she's done with the world."

"She saved you," Itachi said, sticking his hand into the pond and smiling a little when a koi went up to rub against his skin, "and she saved her village."

"Yes," Tānība agreed, "and she taught me to think, to reflect, and to learn not just from others but from myself too. Then she taught me to teach and I have been told that I've gotten pretty okay at it."

Itachi hummed his agreement, yet unsure of what to say.

Then, with a smile, he looked up, "I've met someone a lot like Chiasaki-san recently. She saved me too."

Tānība's eyes twinkled but his lips pulled up into a pained smile, "Then cherish her and hope that one day whatever you do will one day be enough to repay her."

He nodded, still confused about what he was going to do about the spying situation but feeling oddly hopeful.

"Can I come again?" Itachi asked after moment of thoughtful silence.

"Of course," the full force of Tānība's grin returned, "anyone is welcome here."

* * *

The rest of their mission was uneventful, not really deserving of the B-rank that it got. The money was good for it's trouble though, Yugito noted with a dead sort of feeling as she accepted her pay and left the Raikage's Tower. Her strides didn't match with Itachi's like they used to and it was a bitter reminder of her stupidity.

They made their way to her apartment in silence and it wasn't a comfortable one.

At least Itachi actually looked guilty—he knew something was coming for him the moment the door shut behind them and he followed her wordlessly—of course—to the living room. It looked alien to her, filled with books that she would never had read herself, all his taste and none of hers. She was silent as she got to work sorting through the novels on the coffee table, stacking them by what was hers and his.

She wasn't feeling angry anymore—the feeling had been there at first but now she just felt sad and she was working her way towards acceptance. To accept the fact that Itachi would never be her friend and acknowledge that it was a silly thing to want that in a _thirteen year old boy_.

He shifted awkwardly behind her and she realized in dawning horror that she, after having held back for the remainder for the mission, was crying. Yugito didn't turn around to face him, embarrassed and ashamed of her weakness. Instead, she focused more on the books and attempted to play it cool.

It wasn't working. Her tears spilt over soon enough and dripped onto the pages.

He poked her shoulder and she instantly forgot herself, forgot about the book she was clutching in her hands. She reached out for him, her hands coming into contact first with his arms, and then she was pulling him into a hug even as she continued to sit on the couch.

Itachi awkwardly patted her head and it only made things _worse_ because the last person to do that had left her too.

Screw acceptance, she wanted to stop him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, crying with her face pressed into his stomach, her arms around his slight frame as she shook from barely contained sobs, "but just don't leave me. You're my sign, Itachi, that things can change..."

 _I don't want to die_ , she thought and it was her most common one. He'd made her believe that there was a chance that she didn't have to. Now he wanted to go back to Konoha and then nothing, _nothing_ would be different.

"Leave you?" he asked, and she hadn't even realized he was actually speaking to her and she was hearing his voice for the first time. It felt too natural, too much like she'd been hearing it the whole time anyway.

"I saw you with that Sannin," she admitted, holding onto him tighter, "and I know you don't like it here in Kumo. I've been trying to make things better, can't you see? I know you want to go home, Itachi, but I can't let you. You're my cat," she declared fiercely but it was all muffled by her mouth against his clothes.

He shifted away, understandably so.

"I'm not leaving," he said to her and she stilled just as he came to wrap his arms around her head, "I-I'm sorry. He was there to get me to..." he trailed off, his voice taking on a pained edge.

Yugito frowned, suddenly angry again but this time at that damnable pervert, "To spy? Oh. Well, I don't care about you spying—Kumo would never let you get close to sensitive information," she gave him a look, "It's very common for shinobi to join Kumo and attempt to play a double spy but it never works out because everyone works under a need to know basis. Necessity above the superfluous." It _was_ a totalitarian government after all. She blinked at him then, before feeling her face screw up in disgust, "But I'm curious. Why does everyone treat you like this? Like you're an object to be used whenever they want to? Why do _you_ have to do all of the dirty jobs?"

"My loyalty," he whispered, then, his expression looking unsure, "you're really not mad at me?"

She shook her head, suddenly very tired now that she had found a reason to calm down and stop crying. She sighed into him, feeling very glad for his warmth—very much like how she imagined a cat's would be like.

"At first," she explained herself softly, "I was angry at myself for being stupid. I thought you hated me, that I was just some silly mama cat that tried to get away with kidnapping you from the bad world. I thought that it was all one-sided, how much I love you." Then she frowned because, "It's not, is it?"

He didn't answer, making her stiffen, worried. Then his body started shaking in her arms and his were leaving her head. She blinked, wondering what was happening and if she'd just broken him—if he timed out now that he had finally said so much.

"I was scared," he suddenly said, and she looked up at him just in time to see him wipe tears away from his face, "I was afraid you would h-hate me."

"No," she vowed, taking his fears very seriously—they matched her own. Yugito pressed him even closer to her, squeezing him even tighter, "You're family now."

"Hn," he said and she understood the feeling. There wasn't really anything else to say to that sort of blunt statement.

"I want you to have everything I don't get to have," she told him, promised him. Even if she died, had to die, she wanted him to be safe and happy, with a big happy family in a united shinobi world. That would be enough, she thought, if she could just save one person from a sad ending. Her life would be worth that.

"Let's not fight anymore," she mumbled, yawning, "fighting makes me sleepy..."

Then he was laying on her, wrapped up in her arms and he was listening to her heartbeat. It was calm, a constant thump in his ears and he found himself matching his breaths to hers, found himself smiling despite everything, found that he felt safe, certain of himself in her world.

Yugito had fallen asleep, her nose and eyes still red and puffy but Itachi couldn't think of her face as anything less than beautiful. Not when behind her closed lips was a smile with two sharp teeth that he couldn't think of as anything less than the most heartwarming thing he had ever seen. She was still confusing to him, still an oddity in her ability to care so deeply for him, but it _wasn't_ one-sided. An entire month of anxiety was so easily erased by her, feeling insignificant in the moment of a new realization for him.

Itachi, much to his continued shock and amazement, had been pretty dang lucky to meet her.

* * *

**Seven First Times ( & One Lucky Cat) - End**


	8. Eight Secrets Unraveled

**Eight Secrets Unraveled**

* * *

"You're fourteen!?" Yugito demanded to know, slamming her chopsticks down on the table. She didn't know who she was more angry at—him, for forgetting to mention it, or her, for not having checked his files.

He shrugged, then rethought his actions and nodded, "For about a month."

"No way," Yugito sighed, slumping in her chair, her tank top riding up as she went down, "but I turn twenty-three soon!"

Which was a bit funny. To anyone else, seeing her in her lazy day wear of grey shorts and no intentions to strap on a weapon's holster, she did not look even a bit her age. It didn't bother her—cats are ageless creatures. She stretched, listening to her bones pop before settling back into her chair with a content sigh.

"We need to celebrate somehow," she informed him and she ignored the subtle shake of his head, "but I don't really know what we could even _do_."

Yugito splayed her arms over the table, resting her face on the cool wood as she thought. Then, as she let last night's events spread through her mind, she snapped up to attention and stood. Turning to route through the cupboards for the peanut butter and a spoon, she helped herself and didn't spare a glance for Itachi's obviously judging gaze.

"Guilty pleasure," she said to him, but her mind was elsewhere before she asked, "Do you want a spoon?"

He shook his head, looking ill. She shrugged, swallowed and took her seat.

"So, about last night," Yugito started, licking at her spoon of peanut butter, "the spying thing."

Itachi stiffened, he looked at her warily.

She grinned, "Don't worry! This is actually a good thing, I think."

"It is?" he frowned, his brows furrowing. She couldn't stop herself, she leaned over and placed her finger on his forehead. Then she flicked it—it was good for a laugh, she could definitely see why Itachi did this to Sasuke. He squinted at her, looking much closer to a harassed cat than anything else.

"Yeah," Yugito nodded, nibbling at the edges of her spoon, "so here's the deal; I'll help you do the spy thing. Not against Kumo," she rolled her eyes, "because Kumo isn't Konoha's true enemy. Right now, they have a bigger one to worry about."

"Who?" Itachi asked and he was back to frowning.

"Orochimaru," she said instantly, thoughts racing, "that Sannin snake. The one who did those experiments."

Itachi stiffened, looking more confused now, "How do you know about that...?"

Yugito waved her hand in the air, "Not important. What is important is that he plans to stage an attack within, hm," she counted in her head, "the next four or five years from now. At the Chūnin Exams. He _might_ be after your brother," she shrugged, "I dunno, things have changed."

"What do you mean, things have changed?" he asked and she stared at him.

Yugito went silent, thoughtful as she debated what to say next in her head. She could tell him the truth, tell him everything and see if he would believe her. Or maybe he would actually start to hate her, or think of her as insane? She'd never told another person before though and if she was going to do anything positive in this world for him...

"You never asked why I decided to take you on that day," Yugito told him softly, "why I didn't kill you and take your Sharingan. It would have been easier, y'know? But I didn't and do you want to know why that is?"

He slowly nodded and there was blood pounding in her head as her heartbeat sped up. She braced herself, both petrified by how he would take it and hopeful—damn it, she wanted to tell him! She didn't want to be lonely in this anymore. Knowing the future was just too much to handle alone and she'd bore the weight of it for too long, her entire life, and she'd watched the people that would one day be in it.

She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

Yugito released a growl, slamming her spoon to the table beside her forgotten chopsticks. Then she let out a huff of air, watching traces of her blonde hair float up and fall back. She closed her eyes then, refused to look at him and then, and then...

She began to speak.

"Ever since I was a child I knew things," she admitted, "I grew up having dreams and nightmares, grew up meeting people for the first time and yet knowing them, or of them, already. I knew myself already too, knew what my own future would be, my death—and I knew the futures of others too. Like how, when I met you for the first time, I knew yours, Itachi—and I wanted to save you from it."

He was silent and she needed no cues to continue, she just did.

"There's a prophecy that exists," she explained, "from the Great Toad Sage. It tells of a boy who will save the world. He'll do this by bringing it together as a unified front, stripping away the hate that keeps us apart. Shinobi will no longer be classified based on their villages, they will be just what they are—shinobi. I've seen it happen, I know the hero and he's from Konoha. So," she murmured, "it's a good thing if I use what I know to help, even if it's a little."

Yugito didn't think she could change everything—she knew, based on all that she'd seen, that there were too many forces at work here for her to force her way into a happy ending. No, necessary things needed to happen for the world to be saved at all.

Her death, unfortunately, seemed to be one of them.

 _They need to revive the Ten-Tails_ , she realized with a sort of heartbroken sigh. _The Sage of Six Paths prophesied it himself, that you would all come together again._

Matatabi was distinctly silent, perhaps thinking.

No, Yugito couldn't change everything and risk the happy ending for everyone else—she couldn't be so selfish to do that. But instead, she could give it to someone else, someone who desperately needed one, someone a bit like her, someone who had been forced into choices they didn't want to make. Itachi.

"So you see the future?" he asked, finally and after the silence bled away, Yugito opened her eyes and met his gaze.

"One future," she told him, "just one."

"What..." he trailed off, shifting in his chair, "what was mine?"

"Well," she sighed, "you remained a spy for Konoha, which is why I'm not surprised about the whole Jiraiya-san thing. But in that future, you joined up in a group of missing-nin who wanted to destroy the world. Kind of. They're reasons and goals were all different depending on the person," Yugito waved her hand in the air dismissively, "All S-rank, had a bone to pick with the world, took it out on unsuspecting jinchūriki. You," she pointed towards him with a toothy smile, "were pretty dang awful to your brother."

He blinked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, first of all," she sighed, "don't ever tell your brother to kill you or hate you or whatever. It makes him miserable, and honestly, even when he killed you it was all just made more terrible when he learned the truth about your orders to do the whole 'murder your clan or have the entire village wiped out' choice. I honestly think you broke his mind," she shuddered, "he started going on about going to destroy Konoha and become Hokage or something. It was terrible."

"Wait," he held up his hands, eyes wide, "you knew?"

"Yes," Yugito said honestly, then frowned, "though I don't think _you_ knew who those orders came from."

He blinked rapidly, stunned and seeming to be trying to form a sentence but failing quickly. Then, sputtered out, he asked, "W-Who then?"

"Danzō Shimura," she told him bluntly, then, with a deep, ferocious scowl, she said, "and he planned to take the Sharingan eyes left behind and implant them onto his body, all the while hiding his involvement with the massacre at all. Yeah, that's right," she nodded when his head snapped up in shock, "underneath those bandages and apparent weak exterior, he's a dangerous enemy against Konoha, which is ironic because I think he truly loves it."

"Does the Hokage know about those orders...?" Itachi asked and Yugito paused, because she couldn't honestly remember.

"I don't know," she admitted finally, "I mentioned before to you about how blind he is. He truly believes the best in his old friend and just doesn't realize that it's been unreciprocated for a long time. It will be his downfall." She didn't explain the last bit because his was another necessary death. Or was it? Was there other means to bring Tsunade back? They would _really_ need her for the war to come.

Yugito was confused. So many things were connected to each other, so many things happened that brought about the next sequence of events. It had always been natural like that—but she was interrupting it all, making things happen that had never happened before. Sooner or later, she might mess up, and sooner or later, she might very well be the cause of the end of the world.

The thought scared her, the notion that she could be so dangerous to everyone without even _wanting_ that. The future she could unknowingly bringing about, just by telling Itachi, might not even be recognizable to her.

"I won't tell you everything," she said finally, "I can't. Some things must not be stopped but, I think, some things should be given the chance to be changed."

"What'll I be telling Jiraiya-san?" Itachi asked after moment's pause.

Yugito shrugged, "I trust you to tell him whatever you want to."

"The truth then," he decided, nodding.

"So, you actually believe me on all of this?" Yugito asked uncertainly, hesitant and wondering if it were too good to be true.

Itachi gave her a look, "You knew about an S-rank secret, one that I was prepared to take to the grave."

And that was that.

* * *

Itachi was no longer dead weight on their missions—at least not as much as he had been.

He still delegated most of the work to her, never used his Sharingan, and remained much more of a shadow than a person in the eyes of their clients. But he actually helped now, revealing all the reasons in why he had been trusted to become an ANBU Captain. He was smart, analytical by nature as he gave her helpful tips and ideas. He caught one or two bad guys, saving her the trouble, and was as much an equal to her in a way she so rarely experienced on a team.

They were working on a rather impressive no-kill streak, one that was beginning to be noticed, especially around the one year mark of their meeting and his subsequent "defection". Kumo was beginning to trust him more and more and surprisingly, the fact of it didn't cause him to stiffen as he once would have. He still never spoke to anyone that wasn't her but his body language expressed only ease. More and more of her old teammates and friends were coming to acknowledge him as a true Kumo-nin.

It wasn't particularly hard to earn respect in Kumo. One only needed power—and Itachi had plenty of it. Trust would come later, eventually, but it was good that it was even something achievable at all.

Unsurprisingly, Samui—excluding her hot-tempered brother—was a favorite for them to hang around as Itachi slowly acclimated to being less around enemy-nin and more around possible allies. Yugito had already told him what was generally in store for the future, how one day Kumo would very well be one of the main reasons why they won such a fight at all. Not many shinobi countries could host such a battle and still remain still intact and a powerhouse.

If he wondered why the big battle would be hosted in Kumo at all, or what started it, who was behind it—well, he didn't ask. Which was something she really appreciated out of him. He trusted her, trusted her to tell him the things he needed to know, and he didn't try to guilt her into it.

Which was why she was knitting for him a hat with dumb cat ears on it and snickering as she worked. It was supposed to be for their anniversary—not a very happy thing all things considered but still something she wanted to lighten up. Yugito worried more that it would be a somber day, that he would hurt more to feel the day of those deaths draw near. If he was worried himself, he didn't show it where her eyes could see.

Though he was making more trips to Chiasakigakure lately. Something to do with an old man there who he liked to talk to. Yugito was mostly glad that he had _anyone_ to talk to. She knew, based on experience, that it just wasn't possible for one person to cut it. Humans were social creatures after all, yearning for that stimuli one way or another.

Now, however, she also suspected that there was a _girl_ involved, because sometimes if she asked, he would even blush and mutter quietly about his new friend Izuna. It was cute and as much as she wanted to, she didn't needle him about it. Eventually, if he wanted to start dating, she'd have no way to stop him and wouldn't really want to do it either way.

Yugito was not very possessive, at least not in the sense that she didn't know how to share. She'd just be glad to know he was happy at all, that he could have a chance at a family.

On the bright side, she was the only person in the world who he called 'nee-san'—and that wasn't something anyone could take away from her.

Yugito hissed when her needle jabbed into her finger, mostly out of irritation than pain, "Stupid hands."

Matatabi stirred, **Don't mess up on the tip of the ears, that's the most important part. They say a lot about a cat.**

She hummed in agreement, "Should they be a bit nibbled on though? Show some battle scars?"

**Do you think it would suit that kitten of yours?**

Yugito shrugged, "I'd be happy if the hat fit at all. Though, now that I think about it," she held up the work in progress into the design, "it could do with more blue. He's an Uchiha after all."

Then, ears picking up on it before her mind did, she set down the hat and peered out the window she sat by. There was another fight breaking out, common enough in the shinobi sanctioned area that she didn't particularly care...

...wait.

Itachi?

Yugito saw _red_ and _fury_ enveloped her.

She jumped out the window and was already on the move as she landed, barreling into the person attacking _her_ cat, _her_ family, _her_ little brother. She hissed, so fueled with anger and hate at whoever had decided to try and take on Itachi as an enemy—she would hurt them, she would see blood on her hands before _anything hurt him_.

She didn't even notice the bijū chakra that was building up in her coils, demanding to take form the more her breath was stolen from the energy it took to stay so worked up.

Matatabi cackled, **And you say you weren't possessive.**

 _Protective_ , Yugito corrected, feeling her nails grow before seeing the shape of them glint in the sunlight.

Itachi could have taken care of himself, sure, but here she was, puffing out her chest as she glared daggers at man with black hair and dark eyes. He looked up at her with a mixture of horror and surprise. He also looked oddly familiar...

Yugito glanced back at her cat and then blinked, surprise hitting her like bricks as she saw Itachi— _Itachi_ —actually shaking. His eyes were wide, his chest rising and falling as if he'd run ten marathons in a row. God knows he wouldn't end up in such a state for anything less. There was a wild look in his gaze and there was a glaze to it...

She checked for genjustu but found none.

A panic attack then.

This person had induced a _panic attack_ in him and she knew of only one thing that could ever manage to do that. An Uchiha—which explained his familiarity, half the family looked like the same person most of the time.

" **L** e **a** v **e**." Yugito told the man, her voice leeching both Killing Intent and a good wave of a demonic cat's chakra. Then she turned, took Itachi into her arms—he fought against her in a way he _never_ did—but she was physically stronger. Lunging away and with a show of grace that Matatabi would have applauded and given a ten, she landed back onto their apartment's window sill and shut the blinds.

Itachi was still fighting, shoving against her and causing bruises that weren't anything to scoff at. However, it wasn't the calculative hits she knew he could pull off. This, she realized sadly, was absolutely basic instinct. His nails, biting into her skin, clawed at her, spreading rivulets of blood along her arms and cheek. The sight of it only seemed to make things worse as his breath hitched, reeling away from her and moaning out in a long sob. He looked wild, panicked, and every bit as a scared kitten as she'd ever seen him.

She didn't know what to do.

In the past she'd had her own panic attacks, had known the feeling quite well—well enough that she had eventually learned to get used to them, to add the panic to what was her usual cacophony of emotions. It was one of the reasons she usually never lost her cool. She just never had it to start off with if things were really bad.

But none of that could help her in helping _him_ because he was _not_ her and things were different in his case.

"I'm going to give you space," she said to him, keeping her tone level, "I'm not going to crowd around you and whatever it is you're experiencing, I want you to listen and focus on only one thing. The sound of my voice. Do you hear me?"

He sucked in a breath as she took a few steps back from him but nodded slowly, despite the way his chest inflated and deflated too fast to be calm and his eyes still looked afraid. They also kept flickering, red to black, red to black.

_Oh_ **fuck** _._

She looked away, to his trembling chin. Then she spoke whatever the hell came to mind, too panicked to care what about, "So, before you came back home, I was supposed to be done with it but you're a lot quicker than I thought you would be. I have a gift for you, but it's not done yet and you won't know what it is until then. But, just a small spoiler, it's going to look adorable on you. Oh, and I want to get you a haircut if you're interested. I was thinking maybe it would be good if you tried a new style. Ever think about going bald?" She smiled awkwardly at her bad joke, "I hope you don't, I think a full head of hair suits you the most, but um, maybe a trim that will keep it out of your eyes? I know it's been agitating you lately. Don't think I don't notice how long you take trying to fix it! Our hair texture is very similar, you know, so you can ask advice for that sort of stuff. It's just the sort of big sister that I am, y'know?"

In the midst of her rambling, his breathing had been slowing to a calmer rate and his heartbeat, when she tried to listen to it, was also becoming less erratic and more like his usual sound. Then, without further prodding, he slipped to his knees and passed out.

"Nygah!" Yugito winced when she fell dangerously close to saying 'nya'—something she said as a child just as a joke but it had forever stuck with her in her more emotional states—but rushed over to him.

She didn't know what the fuck to do, none of her training had told her what to do when a panic attack led to them fainting. She'd never done it, and if she had, she didn't remember it. Would he even be fine?

Then again, Yugito, left alone to her thoughts as Itachi began to breathe in that even tone of his, what the hell had an Uchiha been doing here in Kumo anyway? The thought left her feeling livid and oddly betrayed. Why hadn't Ay mentioned anything like that? Even the chance of it, he should have run it by her, just to warn her.

Ugh, so much for attempting to lighten up a day that would just forever be a shitty reminder of what Itachi had been forced to do when he was only _thirteen years old_. She was miffed and more than a little bit pissed. For her, the day would never be so bad. All in all, things had gone well and she'd ended up with a cute brother—but not him. He had lost his entire family that day, and almost any chance of ever being able to return to Konoha.

She couldn't even imagine how he felt, how awful it must have been to just...lose it all.

It took a special person to be so unselfish.

Yugito kissed his wet cheeks, lifted him up into her arms and carried him to her comfy bed. His was too new to be broken in and she knew he'd sleep better in a place that was a little less crowded. That guest bedroom filled with books? Yeah, it had become Itachi's, a sign he was there to stay. The books still needed sorting, new shelves still needed to be put up, but he hadn't complained about it.

He actually probably liked being surrounded by so much reading material.

Yugito headed there now, unsure when he would wake up, but needing to do something so she didn't go insane. Within the hour of setting up a new shelving unit and sliding it against the wall, Yugito decided to give up and make dinner. It was no fun working on the bedroom/library without Itachi there to joke around with. He had a stunning amount of acerbic wit, the likes of which she'd never seen before and it was always refreshing.

Itachi didn't eat her onigiri, probably more to do with his mother's cooking and showing blatant favoritism, but she decided to make some anyway. Just in case. She didn't know why but she thought he might actually like a bit of a reminder of home. For the same reason she still drank sun tea. It just felt good to have a bit of home, that it almost outweighed the bad.

Then, just in case he said no to that, she made a dish she would _never_ tire of. Tekkadon. By this point, it was her ramen. She could eat bowls and bowls of it without even feeling winded, and right now, she needed to feel a bit of the happiness the tuna usually gave her taste buds.

An hour later, she heard him stirring, shifting in the blankets. Before he could get out of bed, she was already on the move, tray in hand as she arrived at the foot of the bed.

"Ita-chan?" she called and he looked up at her blurrily with eyes that were thankfully as dark as her own.

"Onigiri?" he asked as soon as his eyes fell to what she'd been carrying in her hands. She nodded, set the tray on her nightstand and went to sit beside him, snuggling up closer to him. He didn't move away, even leaned into her a bit too. He looked sad.

"Yup," she told him, "made them so we can share a snack in bed."

He eyed her, "Not the best idea, eating a ball of rice in bed."

"Nope," she agreed cheerfully before taking the tray back into her hands and holding it up to him, "want one?"

Hesitantly, moving slowly, he accepted the smallest onigiri into his palm. He held it in his hand for a moment, just stared at it with a myriad of emotions crossing his face. Then, with a hesitant bite, he chewed.

Itachi rubbed his eyes, took another bite and nodded, "It's good."

Yugito hummed, took one for herself, and ate it thoughtfully. It was strange how much better they tasted than they had earlier, how warm her heart felt as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in close. He didn't fight her, just leaned his head back onto her chest, and didn't bother picking up any fallen pieces of rice.

She flicked them at him instead.

* * *

"You should have _warned_ me!" Yugito shouted, not even caring an inch that she was talking to her Kage. No, this was their monthly 'Cousin Time' and she was not going to be silenced in the face of his returned anger or frustration. But he surprised her—he looked honestly regretful.

"I didn't think they would meet at all," he told her in that booming voice of his, "Itachi went through the checkpoints faster than we thought he would on his visit to Chiasakigakure."

She frowned, because she'd remembered about that too—he wasn't due home for another two hours. Itachi had explained it to her in the morning, that Tānība had needed to go to the hospital for his health and they'd sent him home. Itachi had looked crestfallen as he told her and Yugito couldn't help but be a little worried. Kumo let him have those visits _because_ of Tānība's reputation for helping lost shinobi recover themselves. He was basically Kumo's therapist and the backbone for mental health in the Land of Lightning. He and Chiasakigakure were the pillars for the intrinsic belief that Kumo heralded.

The use of power must be respected and hedging on that, power must be used to protect before can be used to destroy.

Even Yugito had met the man, had kissed the tips of his fingers in a show of deference. It was Kumo's custom, for the hands to connect in greeting to show a friendship of equals. Less often was for the lips to touch a hand in the show of respect for superiors. At the time she'd been a chūnin and it had been a few months after Chiasaki, the Goddess of Lost Souls, had passed away. She'd done it for her, had explained that to Tānība and had watched as his smile grow. He'd mistaken her for a boy too, and that just so happened to coincide to around the same time in which she started wearing makeup...

Either way, she didn't want him to die and Itachi had been doing so _well_.

Then that damned Uchiha had shown up.

"What was he even here for?" Yugito asked, not really expecting a response.

To her surprise, she got one.

Ay looked at her seriously, his light brows furrowing deeply, "He was here on an escort mission for some rich merchant who's thinking of opening up trade in Kumo, someone who clearly doesn't understand that we don't do business with those that attempt to hide ties with Konoha. We sent them away, of course, just in case it was a cover and they were intending to spy on us."

Yugito gritted her teeth, "Annoying bastards."

She'd been referring to the oblivious merchant. Over the years she'd met many who came to Kumo for the rich economy and hoping to benefit off of it. Many thought they could have the best of both worlds and still keep open trade in other Hidden Villages. While it was certainly allowed to trade with other _lands_ , actually doing business with another shinobi village was seen as traitorous if it wasn't first approved by the Raikage. What they never expected was how much Kumo despised backstabbers and traitors against Kumo. She'd been sent on many missions to 'take out' merchants like these but they kept cropping up like flies to honey. They always got trapped in the end.

Ay thought she was referring to Konoha, which suited her just fine.

He nodded, looking at her grimly, "Your boy still hasn't officially signed over to us yet and we've been holding off on showing the official documents to the other villages. For now, he's marked as a Konoha defector but hasn't been given an official ninja registration number. Have you talked to him about that?"

Yugito shook her head and even as she actually was fond of Ay at times, she lied to him, "He doesn't speak to me yet. I've trying to get him to open up to me but he can be stubborn. He _is_ young."

He made a low gruff noise in the back of his throat before nodding, "I trust in you, Yugito-chan. Out of everyone in this village, you've always sought and earned respect even in situations where you didn't have to. Where you _shouldn't_ have had to," he reached out and fluffed her bangs, grinning in that childish way that took years off his face. "I've been patient because of the mission reports and his status as a prodigy, but I do hope you get me his signature sooner rather than later."

Yugito, for her part, was touched. She had to blink away tears as she smiled at him. Then, overwhelmed with gratitude, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. She'd never done it before, had usually kept a cold distance towards everyone in the physical sense but her relationship with Itachi had been changing her. Parts of herself that she had forgotten, parts that liked to do things like this to show her affection, were resurfacing.

It had been making her realize something, her time spent with Itachi.

She may have been broken, may have been shattered to the point of never being the same again—but the pieces were still there, waiting to be picked back up and used.

Ay looked stunned but pleased as he let out a low chuckle, "Don't tell Bī about that. He'll be heartbroken to hear you _don't_ like him as the rumor goes."

She grinned with a shake of her head, "My lips are sealed."

Ironically, Yugito _had_ liked him. He was the first person she ever had a crush on, had looked up to him for the ease in which he handled the looks of hatred that passed their way. She'd been only a child when she'd first met him, and he was already carving a path for her as a jinchūriki. While Yugito had been two when they selected her, he had been nine. They'd become the bijū's containers in the same year but it had been him who had been old enough to fully work at becoming someone respected and loved by the village whose primary goal was to scorn them. She'd been too young to fully comprehend it all and eventually had been shown what she had to do in order to be treated kindly by the other villagers. Yugito had only been the copy-cat who had done whatever it was to make her life easier.

In the end, the more he got involved with her, Kirābī was hard not to respect and to care about with his infectious laughter and compassion for others. Unfortunately, he'd just so happened to be around when she'd been a teenager and well—she'd deny it and blame it all on hormones but in many ways, she'd honestly been in love with him. But he'd felt those emotions from her during a training session one day—a mistimed hit to his chest—and things _hadn't_ gone so well. She was too young and the seven years that distanced them made things too inappropriate to be overlooked by Kirābī. He respected her, loved her like a sister, but they could never be anything more.

Sometimes she still felt pangs of longing, heard his dumb raps and liked the creative humor behind them and wanted to stick around to listen. Others scoffed at his silliness, but she could only grin at him. Even now, after she'd learned to shed those sort of feelings, Yugito admired Kirābī and made a point to visit him as much as she could, trying to get over each time the sense of rejection that attempted to poison the relationship.

In the end, the most she could receive from him was respect and that would have to be enough.

With a shake to her head to rouse her from her thoughts, Yugito smiled at Ay, "I've been getting Itachi accustomed to other people in Kumo too. I think he's cracking."

"Kumo is the best place for new family," Ay agreed, scratching at the tuft of hair on his chin, "blood matters little here as long as there's a bond that stands for it. It's deeper than being born into something like a clan. You find and choose your own family and each bond is created out of shared respect, admiration, and love for one another. It isn't as cheap as the blood you happened to be born with."

It was just the sort of thing someone who allowed missions to kidnap kids from their families would say. But, despite that horrid detail, Yugito believed in it with all her heart. It gave her the most hope, let her breathe easy knowing that blood wasn't the most important detail when it came to the making of a family. Itachi had only made that belief like iron, the moment he had begun to feel more like a brother than a passing stranger or friend.

Unfortunately, she'd never really got that in Kumo which made it all the more ironic.

Nonetheless, Yugito nodded in firm agreement.

* * *

**Eight Secrets Unraveled - End**

 


	9. Nine Truths Revealed

**Nine Truths Revealed**

* * *

"Nya, nya, nya," Yugito adlibbed merrily as she swept underneath the kitchen table, not really thinking about what she was doing. She was cleaning sure, and Itachi was out of the house doing god knows what, but she wasn't thinking of what she was _saying_. No one really does, when they're thinking much more on the important things—like the latest mission Yugito had been given.

It was worse than a curse word but it was there and by the time she noticed what she was doing, it was already too late.

Itachi had come home and he was poking her in the back to get her distracted attention. She shot up with a strangled yowl before spinning on him with flushed cheeks, "Nya?"

He looked up at her coolly, unimpressed.

"You didn't hear that did you?" Yugito asked, no, _demanded_ to know.

He said nothing, just picking back up the tune she had been singing earlier. It made things entirely too terrible for her. He had, he _so_ had and now he was milking the moment for all it was worth.

"Ita-chan!" she snapped and he glanced over at her with a lifted brow.

He hummed thoughtfully, met her gaze fully and wondered aloud, "You call me by such a cute nickname. Makes me think I should return the favor."

"No," she said, face pale as she took a step back from him, "no, I don't think so."

He stared at her, thoughtful before finally, "Nya-nee-san? A-nya-ki? Nya-san?"

"No!" she cried, cheeks flaming as she rushed to leave the room, "I can't hear you, stupid!"

"I beg to differ, A-nya-ki!" he called back, a low chuckle resonating behind her as he followed her.

"I'm not going to talk to you anymore!" she threatened as she came into living room, jumping onto the couch with a huff and drawing her knees to her chest protectively. Yugito wasn't always very mature, this she knew, and right then she couldn't help but pout. Itachi could really be such a bully...

He lifted a brow, "What had you in such a good mood?"

Curses! He knew her well.

Absentmindedly, she played with a lock of her hair, watching the sunlight from the windows make it shift in color like gold. It was her favorite part of her, after her eyes, and she could never understand why the other her ever covered it up with bindings. Sure, it got caught on a lot of things...

Off topic!

Yugito looked at Itachi and couldn't help grinning. Then, with a cry of his name, she jumped off of the couch and into his arms. She squeezed him into a tight hug and was giddily laughing before she let herself relax her hold on him.

"I have a solo mission," she told him, "and it's in Konohagakure. Know what that means? I get to see Naruto-chan again and maybe," her apparent joy faded and she looked at him with both trepidation and hopeful expectation, "maybe you can write a letter to Sasuke-teme or something."

He paused, letting her words sink in before he lifted his eyes back to her. With a deadpan look, he asked, "Did you just call my brother a bastard?"

She flushed, "Oops! It's just that Naruto-chan calls him that and well, it kind of stuck..."

"Copy cat," Itachi teased in an emotionless voice, almost without thinking. But perhaps it had more to do with how much he was _actually_ thinking. It'd been too long since he'd had contact with his family and well, he was a _murderer_ to them. It wasn't an entirely perfect package and who knew what would be waiting for her when she actually got the message delivered?

She just hoped the kid took 'don't shoot the messenger' seriously. Yugito wasn't really attracted to an idea that meant a nine year old could be shooting off fireballs at her just for bringing up his brother's name. Did Sasuke even know how to do that yet? Inwardly, she shrugged. She wasn't worried about getting _hurt_. It was more a matter of explaining to the neighbors that _no_ she was not there to kidnap another Uchiha.

"Why is your mission in Konoha?" Itachi finally asked and they settled themselves on the couch. She hooked her leg around his elbow as she laid down, flicking a lock of hair around like a cat's tail. Sometimes she just liked to pretend. One could dream.

Thankfully, Itachi took this as just another idiosyncrasy and humored her as much as he always did and didn't even bat an eye at the way she was draped over him.

She eyed him now, shrugging, and then, "Dunno really. Well, that's kind of a lie. I know it's not a stealth mission or a kidnapping mission. It's more a political one but it's more like I'm the hired muscle. Matozaki-san requested me. Apparently they're having a big gathering for the Chūnin Exams that are being held there. A team from Kumo will be there too, I think," Yugito shrugged, then sighed as she slapped her hair against Itachi's cheek, "probably because we hold the next one in sixth months and they want as many teams as possible to be there. It gets weird and confusing when one village wants to cozy up to another one. Politics confuse me."

Itachi blinked, cocked his head to the side and stared accusingly.

She flushed, swatted at him with her hair again and let out a long suffering groan, "Okay! I know it's a date set up. Matozaki-san doesn't need a bodyguard and he requested me and ugh, I know, okay? Happy?"

He shrugged, "As long as you know. But...did you accept it for him or for...?"

"Both," she confessed, hiding behind her hands, "I want to try and give him a, er, a chance? And you, I want to do something for you, something that would actually help."

"Your hat helped," he told her and recalled the image of him in it quite fondly. He sometimes even went to bed in it and always she'd just light up and...

"But that makes me happy too," she told him, "and I want to do something that will actually make things better. Like delivering a letter to your brother and fixing a bond when it can't be done by normal means." She glared at the ceiling now, "It makes me so angry! I wish you could see them again for yourself, but it's better than nothing."

He didn't say anything for a long time and she wasn't really looking at his face—Itachi could be a little intimidating when it came to his family. Not that he ever really scared her. He cared for her, she knew this, but sometimes it hurt her too, to see him in pain. It was a little weird and she hated it, not that she could feel it, but that he was suffering in the first place.

Also, the darker part of her that tended to ruin all good fun, was a little jealous of him—which was, in one word, pathetic.

Finally, releasing a shaky sigh, he asked, "When do you leave?"

"In a week," she told him, then braced herself to face him, rolling onto him more completely before wrapping her arms around his neck. With a deep scowl, she pulled back with narrowed eyes, "You're growing."

He nodded, "That does seem to be the case."

"Well stop!" she ordered, poking at his cheek, "you're gonna get taller than me and make me miserable, I just know it."

He expression turned bemused, all trace of any earlier pain masked and she clung to him tighter for it.

"You," Itachi mused, "is it strange that you going on a date with Matozaki-san is so strange to me? It's like watching my mom try to date."

She jumped away from him like he was spewing lava, face hot.

"You're evil!" she declared, then, huffily and with an upturned nose, "I'm going to my room."

She could feel the roll of his eyes from here but she had enough pride in herself not to turn back and stick her tongue at him.

At least until after the door to her room was already closed.

* * *

Okay, quick, one word to sum up the sort of situation she'd allowed herself to get into!

Awkward.

 _Painfully_ awkward.

"Matozaki-san," she said nervously, trying to keep her face from breaking out of her smile and into a scowl, "can you put me down?"

"Not yet," he told her as he hefted her up higher into the air before bringing her down and repeating the process. She had not volunteered for this—she doubted anyone in their right mind would. Yugito was many things; a kunoichi, a cat lover, a jinchūriki. But she was not a pair of dumbbells and Matozaki just didn't seem to realize that very important fact. He actually, unfortunately for her, seemed to be enjoying himself.

He winked at her every time she was at eye level with him while she stared back at him, trying not to snap and commit a murder.

 _Escape, help me escape this_ , she pleaded with Matatabi.

So the cat did what the cat did best.

This time when Yugito fell into the link, she was feeling so bored she actually did a flip before she landed on the water—then applauded herself with a nod. Matatabi chuckled, causing Yugito to beam up at the mass of chakra.

"Nee-san!" a voice called out and Yugito jumped before being tackled into a hug.

"Hello, Naruto-chan," she grinned, pleased that he had remembered her despite her absence in his life. She'd made an okay impression then, given how he was hugging her like he was seeing a long time friend. She ruffled his hair affectionately, awed by how short he was in comparison to her. "Missed me?"

"You said you'd see me again soon, 'ttebayo," he complained, pulling away as he jutted his lip out at her, attempting to stare her down in only the way a nine year old could. He'd had two whole birthdays since she'd last visited him in the link, which felt odd. Naruto's birthdate had been rather close to two major tragedies. It was almost sad to think about.

Now it was the winter Chūnin Exams and he was only a few years off from being a genin and _that_ exam. Then the _real_ show would start. She tried to tell herself that what she felt wasn't fear but it was a little too obvious to deflect. She already knew it was a time she'd have to be around to divert at least the curse seal, just in case Orochimaru was still aiming after Sasuke. She couldn't let anything happen to him—she'd promised that to Itachi after all.

Yugito shook her head of the thoughts and instead focused on the bundle of energy still waiting expectantly for her to speak to him.

"Hey, I'm in your village again," she told him and his stare turned wary and suspicious.

"Whaddya mean by that?" he grumbled out.

She shrugged, "I'm here as a bodyguard for a Daimyo's son."

"Does this mean...?" Naruto trailed off, his cheeks coloring and he looked away as if showing how hopeful he looked was going to make her turn him away.

"I'll meet you for lunch at Ichiraku's," she told him firmly, "I'll even treat you to _three_ bowls. No more than that though, I'm not rich!"

"Okay, 'ttebayo!" he shouted, pumping his fist in the air with a huge grin.

"Now," she started, trying to snap up his undivided attention again. It was more than a struggle than she thought it would be as she watched him race around the watery landscape, going down in for a perfectly executed tumble.

"Naruto-chan!" she called out to him and his head finally bobbed up after he got up from a failed back handspring. He clucked his tongue cutely and made his way back to her, not even breathless.

"What?" he asked.

"I wanted to tell you something before I left this place," Yugito said, and had been practicing this for over a year. He stared up at her expectantly and she jabbed a thumb in the direction of the large fox making himself busy by ignoring their existence entirely.

Naruto made a face, "Him? What about him? He's not very nice, 'ttebayo. He calls me a brat anytime I try to talk to him."

Oh! That was _wonderful_ news. Naruto was trying to get along with him! It was almost heartwarming.

"So I've been ignoring him," Naruto concluded, making her deflate.

"That fox," she started with a sigh, "is your partner. You need to help him, Naruto-chan, before he can help you—and this will be hard. He's an asshole, and not a lot of people can deal with them, but well, once you get to know him I think you'll find him just a little bit charming too. So take care of him and try to get along, okay?"

"Partner?" Naruto echoed, then looked to the fox with new eyes. Said demon fox looked at her with a glare but said nothing—probably viewing her as too insignificant to speak to her at all. Bastard.

"Yeah," she told Naruto as she decided to ignore the glare before she gestured to Matatabi and herself, "like we are. It's a special sort of partnership that only nine people can have at a time. It's a super exclusive club and it makes us all a little bit like a family." Kind of. Not really. Not _yet_ , Yugito insisted stubbornly.

The kid liked the idea just as much as she did as he grinned at her.

"What? Really, 'ttebayo!? How did I get in? I don't remember..." now he looked vaguely distressed.

Yugito struggled to find an answer because the obvious one was; _we just so happened to be the best options to seal a demon into._

Instead, she mumbled out, "Um, I'll explain to you when you're older."

Naruto gave her an unimpressed look, "Is it really that sort of answer, 'ttebayo? Look, I already know a lot of thin—."

"AHAHA," Yugito interrupted the _nine_ year old, laughing hysterically as she looked desperately towards Matatabi. Thankfully, she had a really awesome friend on her side and she left a promptly sputtering Naruto in the water to splash around for a bit more.

When she came back into her body, it was almost a pleasant experience but would have _definitely_ been better had Matozaki still not been using her body as a set of weights. Men—she just didn't understand them.

* * *

"Mission, mission time, yeah, yeah, nya, nya, nya," Yugito hummed and whistled to herself as she walked down the streets having promptly ditched her client in the hot springs. She only had about an hour before she had to be back and a good portion of that had already been eaten up by a blond who dared try to wheedle her into buying him another bowl.

She was quite impressed with herself because, no, she had given him a number and she had stuck to it.

Now, with the remainder of her freedom, she needed to track down a certain boy...

"If I were a young child in Konoha, one from a very prestigious clan, where would I be?" Yugito wondered aloud before the answer fell into her hands. Quite literally, actually.

She didn't know who was more stunned, him or her.

"You're welcome?" she asked, frowning at the child who had just fell from a damn tree. It didn't exactly scream 'prestigious clan kid' but she was quite hopeful. Besides, he had a similar scent to Itachi and okay, she knew it was a little strange to memorize scents but she just _cared_ and wanted to always be able to track him down through scent alone if she'd have to.

The kid, a boy with long lashes that were used more for glaring at her, said nothing.

Okay...

She set him down and took a step away from him.

"I didn't hurt you," she told him sternly.

"You're a Kumo-nin," he stated and she blinked at him quite dumbly.

"Yes," she answered though he hadn't asked a question.

He stared at her for a moment, almost turned his back to her, but then he hesitated. He looked like he wanted to say something or ask it. Yugito didn't care which, her heart leapt at the thought that she'd found him, _him_. The person Itachi cared so madly about.

"You're Itachi's brother, right?" Yugito asked, looking down at the boy who could have only been nine or ten. He stared up at her with a blank expression, and as he processed her words, he began to glare viciously. He said nothing though and oh, right, there it was—the Killing Intent.

"I only ask," she continued with a shrug, "because I have a letter from him addressed to his brother. So are you Sasuke-te," Yugito halted before she could finish the awful nickname that Naruto had ingrained in her. Now she was just being a copycat like Itachi had said. Puh. She'd never admit it to him.

The boy's expression changed, morphing from anger to disbelief to shock and right back to anger with just a tiny bit of hope, "That isn't a funny joke. My brother can't send letters."

"Right," she agreed, "not in the normal way, which is why I've come to you to hand deliver this. He spent a stupid amount of time on it so can you take it from me already, sheesh."

"It could be a trap," Sasuke protested and Yugito blinked.

Right, right—she was dealing with _his_ brother, she'd have to expect some sort of struggle.

Yugito flicked his forehead.

He scowled up at her, then paused, his eyes lighting up, "It is from Itachi-nii-san!"

"Yeah," she said and added a silent _no, duh_.

The kid snatched the letter from her hands without further prodding, tearing open the envelope before reaching the actual letter. It was worth three pages full, something of a marvel that Itachi had managed to do it at all. He'd spent an awful lot of time just trying to think of how to start it—she knew this because staring at a blank page is not exactly interesting.

Sasuke's eyes passed over the paper and with wide eyes, he looked up, "A-A-nya-ki?"

"No!" Yugito cried upon hearing that terrible, terrible nickname. She released a long suffering growl and mourned the good impression she could have made on the now unimpressionable youth. She was about to shake her fist towards the sky, when she paused and her eyes narrowed at the boy.

How did he—?

Then Sasuke was turning the page over before he released a soft sort of childish chuckle.

She frowned, snatched the page up from his hands and started reading.

_Dear Sasuke,_

_The person who hand delivered this to you is a friend of mine. Her name is Yugito Nii and she's been the cause of many changes in my life. I'm going to be honest and trust you with some very dangerous secrets and explain these changes. But before that, I want you to treat this woman with respect and call her 'A-nya-ki'. She prefers it. Do it now and then refer to the back of this paper._

On the back of the paper it read, _her reaction was pretty entertaining right?_

Yugito let out a startled yelp, "He's taking this joke way too far!"

"Give it back," Sasuke whined and she complied if only so that he didn't burst into aggressive tears. Kids did that right? She knew that _she_ did—or had, _had_ , strictly past tense.

Giving a sharp shake to her head, she watched as Sasuke hungrily devoured the letter then blinked at the sort of funny image that conjured in her head. Okay, she was officially either bored or insane. Probably both. But still, just imagine it—Sasuke stuffing paper down his mouth and tearing at it like it was freshly sliced and seasoned tuna. Hah.

She might have been smiling a little too much, because now he was staring at her. Then he handed the papers toward her like it was some sort of bloodied rag he wanted nothing to do with anymore.

Yugito wondered what was going on but found herself skimming the pages just out of curiosity. He'd told Sasuke the truth—or what he could of it—which was really just the kiddie version of it. He said he thought he had no choice, that he had been ordered to pick between the village and his clan. His decision was an obvious one. Then he said that the orders had been falsely given by another man who wanted the Sharingan eyes, that dangerous things were happening but that he was working to right the wrongs. He told him to inform their parents that they needed to do nothing if they wanted to get retribution, to tell only them the truth that he had been able to share. No sign of Danzō's name.

The next part was an apology, one she had to fully skim over otherwise she would have started to ball in the streets like a lost kitten. The last part was the most touching but this time she read it fully because it _meant_ something and it hurt. It _hurt_.

_I won't be able to be there for you, little brother. Not for a long time. I won't be able to watch you grow, I won't be able to help you train with kunai or to perfect the Fireball Jutsu or catch cats. I just can't be there, no matter how much I wish I could. Until things change, until we can save the village from itself, I won't be able to see you. This is a goodbye, Sasuke, because the next time we meet, we will be different. But it's not forever and what is forever is the fact that you are precious to me. The light that kept me going for a very long time._

_Become good friends with your genin teammates, you'll need them for what's to come. Train hard and accept help from others if you need it—not just from the clan either. Build new bonds, Sasuke, and embrace the Will of Fire that Konohagakure was founded on. You'll be stronger for it._

_I've never said this to you properly before but I love you, and I'm sorry._

_Goodbye, little brother._

_Note; hand this to Yugito. She'll know what to do._

"Bastard," she grumbled, trying not to show her face to the kid who stared up at her darkly. Then she tore at the letter, ignoring the indignant cries that rose up as she cut up the letter into a pile of scraps. Except the last page, which she cut delicately and handed the biggest chunk to the kid who looked about ready to start balling. He took it with shaking fingers.

She burned the pile of scraps in her hand with a fire mouse and sighed.

"He always gives me the hard jobs," Yugito accused softly, her hand absentmindedly going out to ruffle Sasuke's hair. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, "It's going to be alright, kid. Between you and I, there's nothing in this world that will be able to keep you to from meeting again."

Then, duty done and her heart feeling heavy, she leaned down to kiss his forehead. Before he could sputter insults at her heritage, she jumped away and hoped Matozaki would care to spend a bit more time in the hot springs so she could too.

She really needed that right now.

* * *

Dates sucked and she was never going on another one again for as long as she lived.

She'd actually _tried_. She did.

Yugito had left her hair down, let it drape both over her shoulders and along her back, had placed pins into her bangs to keep them back and had applied a good layer of makeup to her face. Her lips were her nice signature red, her eyes dark and mysterious, and her skin marvelously clear for the night. Then was her dress—something she'd had in her closet _forever_ but had never been able to wear—was clinging to her body like a second skin and she was _enjoying_ it.

She had felt good in the midnight blue dress that flitted an inch or two above her knee. It might have looked even a bit scandalous had the dress not been covering up her cleavage so wonderfully. There were no straps, only a satin collar at her neck that connected both the front and back pieces. She looked great in it, had even worn some nice flats to go with it.

Unfortunately, things weren't meant to be.

First off, while Matozaki truly was a nice guy and had pulled out all the stops for their long awaited first date, he was boring. They had _nothing_ in common, no common basis aside from the two missions where they had met. She didn't even feel that spark of one time interest that had gotten her to accept it. Even in his letters he'd never been so...

All he wanted to talk about her politics and Yugito _hated_ the mind numbing topic. She'd just never been very good at playing nice with people when she'd really rather be lazing about eating her weight in chips or weedling Itachi into training with her. Politics were stuffy and constricting and entirely _too controlled_. Why hedge around a topic when you could just ask? Someone gets offended? Just _talk it out and get over it_.

Honestly.

But after awhile, he did start to divulge some insider gossip that gave her a little bit more to go off of. Something about the Daimyo in the Land of Lightning wanting to do more business with Konoha. Kumo was fighting against it, obviously, which was why they had sent a team over to wreck shit on the field. Matozaki didn't seem too keen on watching the violence unfold, even so far as getting a little pale in the face as he skirted around the topic with her. He seemed to want to skip what they'd come all that way for.

Which basically killed any topics _Yugito_ could have supplied. Drats too, she really needed someone else's take on which was the faster kill; throat or a detached limb. She was leaning towards the former but a second opinion would have been nice...

Yugito wanted to leave and the food was awful. There was no fish on the menu, something that had offended her right away, and now she was staring at an odd sort of pasta. With scallops, they'd said. It was the closest thing they could come to on seafood and Yugito was _not_ impressed.

Matozaki said he loved her soooo much, and _this_ was the amount of stalking he'd done? None?

She could have been insulted had it been the better thing for him _not_ to be creepy. Whatever, at least a creep would have taken her to a sushi  & sashimi bar. This, _this_ was just a mockery—no, a deal breaker. She could not love him. She could not ever love him.

Yugito was being too dramatic, this she knew, and this she didn't care about.

Then, finally— _finally!_ —the dinner was over.

 _I won't let him kiss me on the lips_ , she promised herself, _maybe on the forehead or cheek._

But Matozaki had other plans, plans that would break her theoretical heart had it been given to him.

"I think I like you more as a friend," he said to her as they walked out and she blinked at him dumbly. He rambled on ahead before she could interrupt or try to argue—she had no plans to—and he seemed honestly pained, "It's just, there's no more spark. You listen really well, but it's just that, well, someone that would have more ideas on what to do about the new species of pink birds would be nicer. I'm sure you'll find that special person soon, but it's just...I love you, I do. I always will but I've just realized that it's not the type that I thought it was. In fact, I think I'm gay. So it's not you. It's me and well, I guess what I mean to say is that the mission will still go on and I hope our friendship will too."

...what?

Matatabi was laughing outright. **Your life is killing me slowly.**

 _Me too,_ she thought back numbly, _wait_ , _when did we even talk about a new species of pink birds?_

The cat shrugged.

"Okay," she told Matozaki, then smiled at him as nicely as she could, "yeah, let's stay to being friends."

He laughed nervously, "So about my confession, you know, about me being..."

"Gay?" she repeated, then shrugged, "What about it?"

She shouldn't have asked.

"Well, see, I've met this guy," Matozaki sighed out longingly, "or, rather, I've _re_ met him. He's an old teammate of yours. Tamaki. I need your help."

"Can I, um, get back to you on that?" she asked hopefully, "It's kind of late...and I have a headache."

He looked at her uncertainly, "Do you need me to walk you to the hotel?"

"No," she said quickly, then turned on her heel and walked away—cause that's what Yugito did to all awkward and uncomfortable dates. Terrible, terrible man. How _dare_ he, when she'd gotten dressed so _nicely_.

She sulked all the way to a place with _real_ food, starving after having picked at the weird dish of before. She'd just need to reach there, get inside and _feel better_. Yugito wasn't bummed that it had been Matozaki who had rejected her, more upset that he'd lost interest so quickly after one date gone awry.

"I can say interesting things," she mumbled, and sighed, reaching at her collar and feeling the nice fabric. Such a nice dress and now filled with terrible memories! It was worse than she could have hoped for.

Suddenly, she stopped because there was a familiar scent in the air.

Yugito wouldn't have been able to describe it if she tried, but it was nice and _distinctive_. Not the sort of smell just anyone had, and it broke into her other senses with a spark of electricity. She turned just at the same time as she met a single dark eye. She was inches from the opening of the sushi  & sashimi bar. Yugito could have ducked right in and avoid all confrontation but instead, something was tossed at her and against all instinct to dodge, she caught it.

It was a bell and it rang softly in her hands.

"It suits you," Kakashi Hatake said to her before walking away with a soft grumble about useless genin and their inability to comprehend teamwork.

Yugito blinked, stared at his retreating form and back down to her newest 'gift'.

Without thinking too much on what had just happened, she pinned it at her throat—directly on her collar—and made her way inside to eat her weight in sashimi.

* * *

**Nine Truths Revealed - End**


	10. Ten-Tailed Beast (& The Truth)

**Ten-Tailed Beast ( & The Truth)**

* * *

Some missions were fun, some were not.

That last one? Not.

Definitely on the 'never wanna do that again' list. Close to the top actually. It wasn't even the least bit funny either—there was no hope to laugh about it later. Only to forget it ever happened and try not to wince when it came back to bite her in her sleep.

Then, she paused.

"Oh, Kakashi-san!" Yugito called out, surprised to see him and even more surprised that she didn't even feel a shred of anger towards him for taking her down so rudely those many years ago. Probably due to that night, six months ago, when he'd tossed her a bell.

" _It suits you_ ," he had said, which would have been an insult to her if she thought he actually knew it was her at the time.

The Scarecrow turned at the sound of her voice and his only visible eye squinted at her as if he were trying to place where he'd last seen her...then recognition. He stiffened, his shoulders going tense and that was about when she recalled all the weird things she'd said to him in her 'I'm-going-to-die' mindset. Yup, he didn't recall any such night where he'd given her a bell. It wasn't even that good of a bell—it was slightly dented by now and stuffed at the bottom of the closest with that dress.

 _Talk about a bad first impression_ , Yugito muttered inwardly, trying to forget the one he could actually stand a chance in remembering.

 **You do make a lot of those, it seems to either be a hobby or a skill** , Matatabi added unhelpfully.

Whatever.

She straightened out her back, placing a bright smile on her face—one that couldn't be seen since she'd just come off from a mission—and closed the distance. Yugito was cursing her choices but was filled with too much pride to back awkwardly out of the conversation now that she had initiated it.

"You're here for the exams, right? Hokage's Guard?" Yugito asked, bouncing delicately on the balls of her feet—nervous habit, stop—before sliding up to him and meeting his gaze. In her best teasing voice, she asked, "Or are you here for _me_?"

He lifted a brow, clearly surprised. She'd just been trying to make a joke, goddamn it.

"Hm," Yugito started thoughtfully, trying to think of a way to continue the conversation and not want to jump into the next river afterwards, "or maybe it's Ita-chan you're here for? He was an old teammate, wasn't he?"

"Ita-chan?" Kakashi echoed, tone flat.

Yugito bobbed her head, then, whispering conspiratorially, "Don't tell anyone I told you this but he secretly likes my pet names for him."

"No, I don't," Itachi said, coming up from behind her and poking her between the shoulder blades. "Did you get that cut checked out?"

"Eventually," Yugito said with a pout, even as she was definitely secretly relieved not to be alone with the Copy-nin any longer.

"Eventually as in now, while it's still bothering you, or later, when it's already healed up?" Itachi questioned with a sigh, "It'll leave needless scarring."

Yugito shrugged, "Whatever."

The Uchiha rubbed at his temples, "Sometimes you act like such a kid. What even goes on in your head, I don't want to know."

Grinning widely, she pounced, her arms going around his shoulders before pulling him in for a noogie, crying out, "It's the same thing that gets into your head when you act like such a _brat_!"

He squirmed in her hold but wasn't really putting much effort into escaping her. Relaxing on her bullying, she dropped a kiss to his forehead before pulling away with a grin that could still not be seen by way of her mask.

Then, noticing how awkward Kakashi was in the way he shifted on his feet, she met his eyes. The message was clear—he wanted a word with Itachi in private.

Used to how Konoha-nin tended to be, she shrugged and pointed towards Itachi accusingly, "Be back for dinner, you hear? It's tekkadon night! Oh, and, Kakashi-san," she winked at him, "you're welcome to join us."

* * *

"She's a character," Kakashi commented as the two Konoha-nin watched her walk away with the sort of bold confidence that was hard to find in shinobi who spent their lives silencing their steps. Her blonde hair swung across her back looking about as beautiful as it tended to be. It made sense—she spent a lot of her time grooming just for that effect.

"Yes," Itachi agreed, unable to help the bemused smile that made its way onto his face, "you could at least have laughed at her joke."

"Was that her invitation or...?"

"No, she was serious then," Itachi assured him, then added, "and you _should_ come. Her hobby is cooking but she doesn't get very many chances to do it for other people."

Kakashi hummed noncommittally before looking over at the Uchiha, his eye narrowed, "You're...okay here."

Itachi didn't answer right away, just smiled before gesturing to the Copy-nin to follow him, before finally, "I don't have nightmares anymore."

Kakashi blinked beside him as the two walked aimlessly in the Raikage's Tower, "None?"

Itachi shook his head, but didn't say anything else.

"So are you really a Kumo-nin now?" Kakashi asked and there was a thin, very subtle layer of distress in his tone. Concern and confusion. Itachi hadn't been prepared for the care his ANBU senpai was showing him but after a moment, he just sort of shrugged.

"I'm a shinobi," he said after a moment, his own tone full of firm finality, "and I don't believe in sides anymore."

Like always when he got the chance to share _his_ thoughts and opinions, there was a rush of feeling in him that was always a mixture of trepidation, expectation, and pleasure. It felt good to speak his mind and be heard.

"A bit naive," Kakashi commented but Itachi just shook his head.

"No, just waiting for everyone else to catch up."

Kakashi was quiet for a moment and they walked in silence until he asked, "Is she good any good at cooking?"

"Very," Itachi said, then, "I think you should come. We live in the Hinoe Apartments, I'm sure you can find us easily after you get there."

His one-time teammate made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat. It wasn't exactly a refusal, so Itachi took him on an impromptu tour of Kumo. Whether he knew it was a tour at all was up to debate—they weren't speaking—but in the end it didn't matter, because Kakashi ditched him within thirty seconds of it.

It was a shame too—Kumo had lots to offer.

* * *

"He didn't come!" Yugito let out a sound that was a cross between a wail and a frustrated grunt. It was an odd sound and she promised to never do it again. More importantly, she promised to never be friendly or nice to the Copy-nin ever again. No forgiveness for this!

Itachi patted her head and her gazed narrowed in on his height. He was eye to eye with her now and soon he'd tower over her. Things just weren't _fair_. Now even _he_ could pat her head so nonchalantly—what's next then? An armrest?

"He's not the friendliest person," Itachi told her soothingly, "He doesn't even like to make friends. You can't fault him for not wanting to be friendly towards a Kumo-nin."

"But I wanted to throw the bell at his face," Yugito sniffed delicately before throwing herself at the couch. She laid there for a bit, then, upon her nose twitching, she sat up and looked at her window. She glared at it, "Get in here already! We've been waiting for you to show."

"Maa, maa," Kakashi said as he climbed through the window and narrowly missed pulling the string of a trap, "I have a perfect reason for being late. First there was a cat stuck up a tree, and I couldn't exactly just leave it there while it was crying for help so desperately. After that I needed to find it a home and when I located its owner, she wanted to thank me and was gracious enough to pester me into attending an omiai. Imagine my struggle, I had to turn down quite the illustrious beauty when I was there. But I did and—."

While he'd been blabbering on about whatever excuse he could think of, she'd risen off the couch. Yugito made her way to the kitchen, humming as he continued to talk before grabbing the containers she'd packed away in the fridge. It was late and already chilled, making her cluck her tongue. The first meal she was going to give to Kakashi was going to be a reheated mess.

No, she shook her head. She'd just have to make something new. Tekkadon was, admittedly, her best dish but there was no time to put the real precision that the meal required. Also, she had no fish to debone or descale so the point was moot—saving the tuna she _did_ have was a reward for having to deal with such a late and impolite guest. Matatabi had always taught her to be on her best behavior, she only expected the same out of others.

Yugito made him onigiri instead, and got out three glasses of chilled sun tea. Itachi had used to balk at cold tea, something that had made her laugh, but now he was used to it. She wondered what Kakashi would think of it as she brought out the tray of dog shaped onigiri—some things she could not resist—and set it on the coffee table. Kakashi raised a brow at her when he noticed the cute little ears on the onigiri.

"That one's a cat," she told them seriously when she pointed at the single onigiri she had intended to be hers to eat.

Itachi outright laughed, and it only increased in volume when Kakashi snatched up the cutest onigiri in the bunch. Hers.

She gaped at him while Itachi struggled to breath. As happy as she was that he found something to be amused about, she was honestly miffed. To add injury to the insult, Kakashi let it disappear from sight without even so much as a look to her. She made a disapproving sound in the back of her throat.

"Here," Itachi said, adjusting the size of the ears on a rice ball and shifting the nori strips on the face of it, "it's a cat now."

"Ita-chan!" she crowed in glee as she took the onigiri into her hands. Then she kissed his cheek upon realizing that she couldn't quite reach his forehead. Next thing she knew it, she would be kissing his chin. _Don't grow up so fast!_ —he wouldn't even listen to that demand though. He'd grow faster just to spite her too. Puh.

Kakashi was quirking a brow at them, "Are you two...?"

Yugito honestly didn't know what he was getting at and she looked at Itachi for ideas. He seemed a bit confused too, and when their gazes met, they were both equally put out. Then, as she assessed what had just happened, Yugito blinked—the heat in her face went out as she visibly scooted away from Itachi.

"He's my otōto!" she cried, lobbing a chunk of rice at Kakashi for his impudence. He dodged easily, dark eye shining with humor. Not to mention the fact that her precious child was _fourteen_. Sure, he'd be turning fifteen sometime next month but that didn't make it any better. It honestly made her feel ill just to think about it.

"What's going on?" Itachi asked and she glared at Kakashi darkly.

"I'll tell you when you're older," she informed him stiffly.

_More like never, ahahaa..._

"Well, you see, Itachi—" Kakashi started but was abruptly interrupted when she flung herself at him. He hadn't seem to have been expecting a bodily attack and she slapped her hand against his masked mouth and glared at him darkly. She ignored quite profusely the fact that she was now straddling him and was close enough that his scent clogged all others.

He stared at her with a raised brow, and seemed to find immense pleasure at her misfortune of her having moved before she could think. His eye was shining and he was looking at her quite expectantly. His hands were even on her back, curling themselves in her hair and it was making her flush hotly and she was so, _so_ angry—ugh! She glared at him and tried to show him a cool, unamused expression before clambering off of him slowly. Now that she thought of it, she should have squashed a rice ball in his face just for good measure.

She was still probably a little red in the face when she returned to her place beside Itachi, who was looking at her curiously out of the corner of his eye.

"Just drink the damn tea," she grumbled, picking up her own cup and taking a deep swallow. Inwardly she cursed when a bit of it trickled from her mouth and down her throat. It was like she was a child all over again and couldn't even control her limbs the right way. Yugito didn't like any reminder of _that time_ spent as a baby with limited senses and maneuverability. It was all a forced blur in her life but at times she could still recall the cloying confusion and constant struggle not to go insane from boredom and fear, respectively.

She cleaned herself up promptly and pointedly ignored Kakashi's bemused look.

"So did you get that cut checked out?" Kakashi asked with a gleam in his eye. He seemed to have found a new hobby in annoying her.

"Eventually," she echoed from before but honestly, she never would and she'd already bandaged the cut along her back. Hospitals smelled bad enough when you were a visitor, but as a patient there was a whole new layer of discomfort. A different bed, foreign smells, the constantly annoying beep of machines, the chatter and the faked cheerfulness of the doctors and nurses. No, if she wanted to heal, she'd have to do it in the privacy of her home, where she could nag Itachi into babying her if she liked.

Itachi rolled his eyes, "Needless scarring."

She rolled _her_ eyes at him, "It's on my back, no one will see it."

"You're a kunoichi," he insisted, "shouldn't you be against that sort of thing?"

"If I were the type to go on missions where it mattered, yeah," she agreed, "but I don't." With that said, she reclined where she sat and hooked her leg over Itachi's, facing him seriously. When he looked at her with fond exasperation, she tweaked his nose gently and quickly draped herself over the edge of the couch. Her hair pooled on to the floor beneath her and she looked up at Kakashi who was staring at her a bit oddly.

So what, she didn't sit on a couch like a normal person—she ignored his judging stare and instead hummed in thought for what else to say.

"We should tell stories now," she told them with a very pleased smile before tapping her foot against her captive's thigh, "you should go first."

"You're better at it," Itachi deflected and she pouted at him.

"You never tell _any_ stories though," she reminded him, "so how do you even know that?"

He looked away, clearly not rising to her bait. Smart cat.

Yugito sighed, looked at Kakashi's slightly uncomfortable face before deciding that she would have to do a whole lot better as a host if she were going to entertain _these_ guests. She pulled her legs away from Itachi, placed her hands on either side of her face and moved into a handstand. Moving always helped her think, helped her focus. Yet she could already feel her tank top and mesh shirt begin to ride up. Face flaming and hoping she didn't just flash anybody, she decided to test her flexibility by leaning back and bending.

Kakashi made a weird noise in the back of his throat before he asked, "What is she doing now?"

"Stretching," Itachi replied calmly, seeming to have picked up a book and was busy studying it. It looked surprisingly similar to the one Kakashi had been reading and toting around until then...

"I got it!" she announced before she pulled herself back up into a handstand. She let herself fall into the couch before she gathered herself up and reorientated herself on the furniture like a normal person. She held up her hands, "I once killed a man by grabbing his head and doing this." Her nails grew like a weapon unsheathing itself, looking as sharp and deadly as always. "It was messy, I don't recommend it." Silence. "So," she chirped, "what's the worst kill you've ever done?"

"There was a time when my aim wasn't as accurate as it should have been," Itachi admitted, looking a bit ill, "my kunai ended up slicing off a man's ear and, quite literally, feeding it to the shinobi right behind him."

The three of them visibly winced and cringed.

"Kakashi-san?" Yugito prompted and was honestly curious if he'd share at all. He didn't seem to like her very much—probably because of how weird she was, which kind of bummed her out. If she were thinking optimistically though, he just didn't trust Kumo-nin.

She was just so _curious_. What kind of person was he like right now? What did _he_ hope the future was like? How could she prepare him for Obito, and how could she get him to help them out when the time came? He'd be rather useful to have in the know of things, though she worried he might not be strong enough or was just too stubborn. He'd been hurt a lot by other shinobi countries in too many wars. She wondered, when everything was all said and done in the Naruto story, what happened to him?

 _He'll be the Rokudaime Hokage_ , her brain supplied readily though that wasn't really what she had meant by that.

More like...did he struggle with the acceptance of his role in the hat that his own teacher once wore? Had he ever had doubts about the other shinobi countries, moments where he hated them like he seemed to do now? It almost upset her, to know so little about him in the end.

He was a deep person and she was _curious_ about that.

But he had no interest in her and that put a damper on things.

To her surprise, he did answer and with a response she hadn't quite expected.

"Chidori," he said, his eyes a bit dark when he said it and she thought of Rin and how she had died, "tears into the body and it gets _very_ messy."

She tried not to wilt at the serious answer—she hadn't meant to bring up awful memories.

"I once batted a man's head off," she said, just to move the conversation forward, "I was using Matatabi-san's chakra and it kind of seared it right off his body. It was both messy _and_ there was an awful smell that clung to that hand for _weeks_." She shuddered at the memory.

"Matatabi-san?" Kakashi echoed, looking perplexed, "The Two-Tails? You named it?"

She blinked at him while Matatabi laughed in her head.

"Er, no? The Sage of Six Paths did."

It was his turn to blink as he looked at her owlishly, "What?"

Yugito brightened, "Story time! Oh, I've forgotten how much other people don't know about the world's past. But yeah, The Sage was definitely real, and his name was Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki and his mother was Kaguya, the woman who ate the Chakra Fruit and spread chakra to all living things. So yeah, pretty important topic that was _not_ in _my_ history lessons in school."

"How did you learn this then?" Kakashi asked, seeming honestly curious.

"Matatabi-san," she lied with a smile, "Now, this story starts long before the founding of the hidden villages, long before even the Warring States era. The bijū was created from The Sage's Creation of All Things ability out of the Ten-Tails' chakra, where it was divided into nine living entities. He got the idea from his son, Asura, I think. See, The Sage was originally the jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails, it was how he saved the world from it. He recognized it was still too dangerous intact so the bijū was formed to keep everyone safe. The Sage named the nine and explained to them that a link existed between them despite their separation, and guess what?" Yugito grinned smugly, "I've been inside the link, it's totally awesome." Itachi rolled his eyes but seemed fairly interested in what she had to say. She continued, "He also foretold of a day when they would be brought together again—though not as they were—and that at that time someone would emerge to show them what true power is. That," she told them with a sly smile towards Itachi, "hasn't happened _yet_."

He blinked but she was already moving on, this time with a small frown, "After the Sage's death, the bijū drifted apart, because the Nine-Tails is an asshole and thought the tails were a sign of how much power they have," she shrugged, "Anyway, the bijū were originally created not only to prevent the Ten-Tails' resurrection, but also to maintain and balance peace. It was a way for The Sage to look after everyone even when he was long gone. However," Yugito let out a long suffering sigh, shaking her head, " _unfortunately_ , the first person who could have come close to helping them do this was Hashirama Senju, who had captured and distributed the beasts amongst the new villages in order to stabilize the balance of power between them. It could have actually worked quite well, but Hashirama forced them into it when he could have earned their cooperation. That," she told them both sternly, "would have saved your Yondaime's life and many others in the Nine-Tail's attack."

Kakashi looked at her sharply but she was already moving on, "See, over the centuries, humanity has failed to recognise the bijū as individuals, seeing them instead only as monsters, demons, or mindless beasts worthy of fear and disdain. Because of their immense power, the bijū were sought out by humans to be used as weapons in times of war, then they were sealed into other humans so that they could control them. Eventually, because the collective mind of the human race is so dumb, the bijū grew to resent this treatment and came to hate us just as much as a lot of people hate them. It's stupidity at it's worst. Admittedly, Kumo is better at the entire process."

She paused to think about it before nodding to herself, "we've never had any major incidents where it's resulted in a bunch of deaths. Power is respected here, and the bijū have plenty of it. Though it wasn't until Kirābī-san and I that the bijū have worked with us so closely. The secret behind that? It's not a dominance, it's a partnership."

"What do you mean by that?" Itachi asked, looking thoughtful, "You've never really talked about it aside from that one time when you told me about the Falls of Truth. Does that have anything to do with it?"

"The Falls of Truth," Kakashi echoed, "what is that?"

Yugito shrugged, "Ay-san and Kirābī-san found it when they were training on a turtle. It's a waterfall where you face the truth, that's the basics of it. If you want to get more superstitious, it's a holy place. Inside there are even murals of Matatabi-san and Gyūki-san, and well, Matatabi-san is sometimes referred to as a living ghost by people that really don't know better. The Falls of Truth serves as a final assessment now," she told them with a sigh, chewing at her lip before she could stop herself, "after the training."

"You mentioned that before too, the training," Itachi blinked at her, "what was it like?"

She didn't want to answer, she didn't even want to _think_ of those times when everything was _awful, awful, awful_. She hated, _hated_ Kumo for it and she didn't like to be reminded of it. Even now, she woke up with nightmares from it, hating herself and everyone and wishing they would all die.

Yugito almost tried to steer the conversation elsewhere but as she looked at the two of them, both of them having suffered so much...

"In Kumo, well I said they have a better system, but it's not kinder," she told them bluntly and with as blank as face as she could muster before going on, "Jinchūriki are chosen very carefully here. Kirābī-san was just one of many candidates and I was too. There are commonly two prerequisites to being chosen. One, they must be an orphan, and two, they must create a tie to the Raikage. Kirābī-san was Ay-san's adopted brother when Ay-san rose to power. It just so happens that my father was a cousin to him, though he was closer related to the Nīdaime. It has to be this way so that they can install loyalty into us that is focused on the Kage, and thus the village. Then comes the training."

Yugito stood up, and found herself moving instinctively into the twists she'd been trained to do since she was very young, "They said I wasn't naturally as flexible as I should have been so when since I was two, I was being taught to do things like this," she popped her shoulder out of place and let her arm hang for a second before popping it back in, "At first, I couldn't do it, so instead they pulled at my arms until I got used to the pain and could do it myself. My senses were naturally heightened but to make them more acute, I was made blindfolded, masked, or deaf in a maze of traps to locate my reward with only a single sense at a time. No, that was a lie. With _two_ senses. I always had my sense of touch and could always feel when the bombs went off against my toes. I learned to dodge shrapnel and the impact of an explosion by the time I was six and the mazes became too," she lifted her fingers and made bracket signs, "'boring'."

Yugito sighed, "Sometimes, I was made to hang by broken legs to test the healing rate of Matatabi-san's chakra. There were other things too but those," she shuddered upon falling to the floor, splaying herself out, "those I can't talk about," then, just in case they wanted to ask, she shot on ahead, "I was raised by strangers. They were foster families that I was placed with, people that would watch over me and to assess my progress. Every month I would visit the Raikage and he'd inform me of my next family. Finally," she pulled her knees to her chin and looked away from them, "finally, I was put into my last family. A man and his wife, they owned an animal shelter and I was actually liked there. I would feed the animals, play with them, and I learned how to cook and..." Yugito trailed off as the old wound throbbed inside of her, the memories pounding at her skull like a warhammer.

"There comes a day in every jinchūriki's life where they lose control," she met their gazes now, and they were listening raptly—Kakashi didn't have his book anymore, she noted dryly—as she continued, "and Kumo has a way of drawing it out and _testing_ the balance of it, just to see what will happen, to see how well the training holds. It turns out, that final family had been ordered to kill me before I turned ten and," Yugito cringed just saying the words, felt her heart breaking all over again as she recalled the feel of that man's throat in her hands as he smiled at her, petting her hair, "and I killed them instead—without using Matatabi-san's chakra. I was deemed a success and sent to the Falls of Truth, where I faced it..." she trailed off then softly whispered, "the truth."

The moment she had realized she was a monster.

Yugito refused to cry and she didn't. Instead, she sighed and looked at them both, primarily Kakashi.

"So what kills you inside?" she asked blankly.

It was strange. She didn't know whether it was because of what she had shared, if it was more out of pity than anything else, but he told her. He looked into her eyes, and there was no trace of that humor of before. There was an understanding, a current of shared misery that passed between them.

"I got two of my teammates killed," he said bluntly and didn't try to explain himself or the circumstances in which it happened. He was just telling them the facts, or what he thought of as a fact.

She nodded at him and stood before looking at the two of them, "Life has been generally shitty to all of us. Circumstances have been forced onto us where we were given no choice but to do the best for our survival and we've known people and lost them in ways we will never forget. But, there's still the future and we can still affect how it will look like, how the lives of the future generations will be led. Our actions can still save lives."

Itachi nodded sagely while Kakashi just stared at her with an unreadable expression.

With a mischievous grin and a desire to break the serious air, she padded up to him and cupped his chin in hers. While he stared inquisitively up at her, she leaned down and kissed his headband. Pulling back, she flicked it before saying quite seriously, "I dub thee honorary cat friend. It's quite an achievement."

"Do I get a badge?" he asked and she winked at him.

"How about a bell? I think it would suit you," she returned with a coy smile.

He blinked, seemed to frown, then, with a light of recognition, he shifted back, "That was you?"

She just smiled and turned away with a grin, already shouting out, "You should stay the night! I can bring out the futons and we can move the furniture in this room out of the way. Oh, maybe we can build a fort too?"

Neither of them were up for the marvelous idea. Itachi was tired and Kakashi was very similar to a cat in how elusive he could be. He slipped out of the apartment window before she could convince him to at least come for breakfast. On the brightside, when she set out a plate of onigiri on the window sill, they mysteriously vanished with a note of thanks.

Friendship with that one was going to be a struggle to obtain.

* * *

**Ten-Tailed Beast ( & The Truth) - End**

* * *

**BONUS #1 - Piece of Kakashi's POV**

* * *

Kakashi was there only for Itachi and for the promised good food. He probably should have arrived sooner rather than later though, because instead of receiving a bowl of tekkadon, he got onigiri. Which were, in fact, quite tasty.

More importantly though, Kakashi was concerned for Itachi. Not only had he been behaving oddly before, he was so visibly relaxed that it was just strange seeing him. His usually strictly monitored demeanor seemed to be completely switched out. Like he was a different person entirely—Itachi had never been without tense shoulders or a serious face. Now he was laughing, and his eyes were lighter with a shine he had never seen in the dark eyes. Kakashi didn't know what to think, if he should have been worried that Itachi had been brain-washed or if he should be glad for a teammate to end up so obviously happy. So he'd gone to investigate.

He half-expected to find the base of an evil lair. Instead, it looked like a cat's home if the cat were a human. There was a distinct scent of fish in the air but a hefty layer of strawberries and the scents that were innately theirs. Itachi's was familiar, a woodsy scent that was similar to pine, but hers was a bit harder to place. It was also the most easiest to pick out, cloying most of the other scents if he didn't focus on sifting through them.

The last time he'd met her, this new friend of Itachi's and also subsequent kidnapper, he'd seen her with a mask and then with a layer of blood pouring out from a very broken nose. It hadn't been a pretty sight. But she was—he had to admit it, even to himself, that Yugito Nii was physically beautiful in a way that was rare. With her hair up, she looked mature and fierce, ready to raise some hell. Different from that, she had another face and he was seeing it now. With her long blonde hair down and spread out, she looked like kitten—innocent and sweet.

She was even playing like one, whether she noticed or not as she moved in that fluid, graceful way of hers. Every movement looked purposeful, the tightening of muscles and shifting of her legs as she eventually moved into a handstand, made it feel much more like he was watching a show. Her stomach was showing, taut as it showed off a rather cute outer belly button—then she was bending.

Kakashi couldn't help the noise in his throat as he watched her tip her head all the way to the back of her thighs, her hair casually swinging along with her movements. He'd never honestly seen anyone _that_ flexible, had seen others try and fail in their training. She seemed to do it like it was as natural as breathing. Then her eyes met his and she was smiling.

He glanced at his book, at the scene that was written there and paled when he realized it was also about a very flexible kunoichi. He closed the book and set it down on the coffee table and barely registered that Itachi had picked it up and was reading the book's summary.

"What is she doing now?" Kakashi had asked.

"Stretching," Itachi had replied in a bland tone.

 _Yes, that's quite obvious_.

"Got it!" she'd said when she pulled her legs up as she moved back into a handstand.

 _Got what?_ He'd wondered.

Then she told them how she'd killed a man with her bare, erm, _claws_ —it was an instant boner killer, for which he was thankful for. Worse was when Itachi added his confession to the mix. Those were just not ways people preferred to go.


	11. One Broken Man

**One Broken Man**

* * *

Kakashi felt for a second like he was going to be sick.

He was trying not to be and he was in the midst of rereading the best scene of the book in his hand, but it was getting a little hard to do when experiencing—not for the first time, mind you—motion sickness. Thing was that he much preferred to carry himself any major distances and riding on the back of a toad with the summoner spouting gleeful nonsense? Not his idea of quick transportation. Making it that much worse, was that whenever he felt the telltale sign of being carried, it always got a little complicated in his head.

Memories started cropping up of being too weak from a day of training and having to be carried to his teacher's home, where the smell of home cooked food wafted in. It always started like that, the recollections he'd taken on over the years. They started off good, with everyone intact and with their eyes shining with life. Their laughter echoing through time, the way it felt when they embraced him or ruffled his hair, the way _he_ felt but was too afraid to. Then it would take a turn and in his head, he envisioned all of their endings. Rin's, especially, played through on a constant loop and he could remember the smell of singing flesh, her barely heard scream, and the spark of light that had left him blind for all of ten seconds.

Funny, how that worked—just being carried on a toad's back could make his brain all too pleased to make him dwell in such awful memories.

Gamabunta came to a sudden stop and Kakashi had to stop himself from lurching forward or else lose his lunch. This was going to be the last time, he vowed, the last time he ever he rode with the Sannin. They could take all of their clandestine meetings _elsewhere_.

If this one hadn't been so important, however, he would have found a way out of some way or another. It was something of a specialty, his ability to get himself out of any sort of situation he didn't particularly like.

"So you met her then?" Jiraiya asked, scratching at his chin as the toad settled down for a nap. They were shrouded by trees everywhere, and perhaps this was a positive for toad-back riding. They knew where to pick the best sort of meeting places. This one had the smell of ripened fruit in the air and a touch of sandalwood. Save for the wildlife in the area, there was relative silence and Kakashi could not hear a single human sound that wasn't already their own.

"Yes," Kakashi responded, already knowing who it was that he was referring to.

"Lucky," Jiraiya seemed to grumble, "I've never met her myself. Anytime they have more information, Itachi-kun is usually the one I have to go through and we usually meet at a _temple_." Jiraiya shuddered, expressing his opinion on _that_ matter, "Pity, I hear she'd quite the elusive beauty."

Kakashi coughed—he didn't really care to discuss the way the current topic was forming—then resettled himself on the toad's back for a more comfortable seating, "About that, how long have they been working together on Operation Crow? When I saw them together," Kakashi hesitated, "it seemed as if they knew each other for a very long time."

Jiraiya shrugged, "It wasn't intentional but it seemed like Yugito-chan caught onto Itachi-kun's assignment rather quickly and decided instead to help. Though it's a bit of a stretch to say that—we haven't scraped a single shred of intel about Kumo from them. That's the deal, and ironically I've been learning more about Konoha."

Kakashi was quite as he let those words sink in. Then he frowned, more confused than he had been in a long time, "What do you mean by that? What's going on?"

"I received a letter from her," the Sannin said, his expression turning serious as his voice dropped that humorous edge, "from Yugito Nii. I don't know how she does it, but she's something else. I don't know if it's just that she has a kekkei genkai for it, or not but..." Jiraiya sighed, "she wrote things that no one knows about. Things from my past, children, she knew their names and about the frog costumes that I got them to wear. They were so cute..." he trailed off and Kakashi tried not to jump to conclusions about the image that had just been painted there.

"So her information is legitimate," Kakashi said instead, then his brows furrowed, "but why is she telling us? It has to be a game, maybe she's mixing the lies and truths."

"No," Jiraiya shook his head and he looked as surprised as the Copy-nin felt, "with the information she gave to me about Danzō Shimura, about him holding onto his ROOT faction. I don't know how much you know about it, but it was something the Sandaime outlawed for the methods that were used to create members. All this time we were under the impression that it was gone, and I would have never thought that—."

"I could have told you that much," Kakashi said, meeting the Sannin's confused glance, "I was scouted for it after Sensei died. It was how I met Tenzō."

The Spymaster blinked, "I wasn't aware of that."

Kakashi shrugged. He'd told the Sandaime about it but never anyone else. He sort of assumed that Jiraiya knew everything from some sort of osmosis by being so close to the man in power.

Jiraiya sighed, "The more information she gives us, the more I see that I should have been sticking more of my nose into the situation festering in Konoha—though I suppose that was my negligence and laziness talking. I just assumed others could do it for me. Now the whole thing with the Uchiha clan and a member of the Council attempting to have them eradicated—."

Kakashi's head shot up at that, "Eradicated? So it really was Danzō?"

"Yes," the white-haired man squinted his eyes at Kakashi, "he planned to take their Sharingan for himself. He was the one to issue the orders, the ones the Hokage doesn't know about. I have a copy of the mission scroll but he was careful—it doesn't tie back to him so I can't use it for physical evidence. Still, considering he's been working to strip power from the Uchiha clan, he's the only one that fits with a motivation. I think the other council members were also swayed to support him."

"The Hokage doesn't know," Kakashi echoed, and now _he_ was squinting at his teacher's teacher and they were staring at each other, one incredulously and the other sheepishly, "Does this mean you haven't told him?"

"No," he admitted, with a sigh as he broke their eye contact, "he's a difficult man, especially with how much faith he has in his council members. It would be hard getting him to believe me and I don't actually have any physical evidence—Danzō doesn't leave a paper trail and I've yet to actually get my hands on an operative to look at the seal work. There was that sapling of yours but we've gotten as much as we could from him already and it's not as if he's up to date with that spider's newer schemes."

"So the game is to wait until he leaves himself open?" Kakashi asked, though he loathed the answer. His entire life he had spent it waiting, too many occurrences having hinged on help coming to save the day but them being _too late_. In the end, waiting had left a bad taste in his mouth. He much preferred turning the tail on its head and making _others_ wait. It had helped him connect more with an old friend too...

"Obito," Kakashi suddenly said and it felt like a bolt of lightning had struck him. He looked at Jiraiya, "She said something about him being there that day. Akatsuki, she said. That he was in a group and that he had been there close by in Konoha. The eye..." Kakashi trailed off because it was then that he would have to admit that he _had_ felt it, the pulse she'd spoken of—and she'd known it was a graduation gift.

_How had she known it was a gift?_

Suddenly, he felt very sick.

The only ones who knew the details of that mission were limited to few. Him, the Sandaime, Fugaku Uchiha, and Jiraiya. No one else.

But she, a _Kumo-nin_ , had known.

"How is she getting this information?" Kakashi asked, feeling naked and odd. His secrets were not as secret as he had once thought—nothing was safe now.

Jiraiya, for his part, looked tired, "I mentioned a kekkei genkai, right? That's the only way I can think of it at this point. She just told Itachi that she knows things, from the future, the past, and the present. It seems this ability has it focus on Konoha, however, so it never did much good to Kumo."

Kakashi was horrified, the emotion similar to all of those times spent laying in bed _awake_ and just thinking, thinking, _thinking_. He couldn't help but think now, and all those thoughts of his were buzzing and connecting and they all led to one very terrifying conclusion.

"Obito is alive," he said, and he felt the familiar devastation of grief, loss, and regret weigh down on him. His eyes were wide but he wasn't really seeing anything. No, he was far more focused on what this _meant_. "We have to find him," Kakashi said because it was the _only_ thing he could think of, then, thoughts racing alongside his heartbeat, "she said he was in the Akatsuki. He was in Konoha that day. Why was he in Konoha that day? Why didn't he return? Does she know these things?"

Jiraiya pursed his lips, "You'll have to ask her. I haven't been able to get much an answer out of her pertaining to the Akatsuki though not for lack of trying. Although, she did say it's a group of missing-nin, all S-rank in their abilities. From what I know of my own sources, Orochimaru used to be a member." The white-haired man sighed heavily, "Could still be, actually. In the end, she refused to say anything about their intentions, only that their purpose—."

"If I die," Kakashi echoed, thankful for his sharp memory, "then it will perhaps extend the time when Akatsuki strikes. Matatabi will perhaps take a while to form, you know. I have a feeling the cat can be quite moody sometimes."

"...what?" Jiraiya asked, scooting a noticeable inch away.

"That's what she said to me," Kakashi stated with a sigh, "then she asked if I could feel Obito through the eye, the one he gave me. I didn't think...it doesn't happen very often. I thought it was aligned with tragic events but...the last time it happened was when..."

"The Nine-Tails Attack?" Jiraiya asked quietly.

Numb, Kakashi nodded.

He didn't know what to think, didn't know how to feel knowing that Obito had been close— _so close_ —on the night his rock had been shattered. Everything grounding him vanished on that day and ever since he'd been a mere shade of himself. Kakashi had lost too much, had felt pieces of him be lost forever to him and instead watched them go with the memories that haunted him nightly. There it would taunt him with all the things he could never have, all the things he still ached for.

"Are you okay?" Jiraiya asked and there was real concern in his tone.

No, he should have said.

Kakashi was not okay. He had not been okay for a very, very long time.

Instead, he did what he did best when he wanted to deflect any painful or awkward situations, he thought and he spoke. "What do you think the Two-Tails has to do with the Akatsuki?"

"Two-Tails?" Jiraiya blinked, "Since when did the bijū enter this conversation?"

"Since Matatabi," Kakashi told him, and he couldn't help the twitch of his lips, "apparently they have real names."

Jiraiya looked thoughtful, arms folded over his lap, "So, what we're asking is what a group of missing-nin, one from our very own village—two, if we count the snake—has to do with an attack that concerns the bijū."

"Extend the time," Kakashi repeated, "If she died, it would extend the time before they could attack. The Two-Tails would have to be fully formed for them to attack. But why? What would be their goal in attacking the bijū?"

"Perhaps they plan to take the power of jinchūriki for themselves," Jiraiya offered, "if they're missing-nin and really so terrible, the lure of a bijū's power could be quite attractive."

Kakashi frowned. It was sound logic except that—.

"Why would she keep that hidden from us?" he asked sharply and with a raised brow, "In the point of her own interest, shouldn't she reveal what she knows about them to save herself from an attack? There must be something more, something bigger than we can see."

"Collecting the bijūs and stealing them from the Hidden Villages could be the start of the next war," Jiraiya told him, rubbing at his forehead, "Kumo could be use it to blame Konoha, claim that the ones who stole their jinchūriki were from the village. Not to mention what _Iwa_ would do, or Kiri," Jiraiya shuddered, shaking his head emphatically, "It could possibly be the worst war to come. _Everyone_ would be fighting against each other. No one would be safe. It'd be the Warring States era reborn anew."

Kakashi shivered at the thought. He'd been born and raised through two world wars, had survived them both but always, always he had been told that the time before the Hidden Villages were the things of nightmares, making everything else look like child's play. He'd heard stories growing up, ones that Minato would share to him when it was just them under the soft glow of the moon.

To live to see that? To be around to experience those stories first hand?

Kakashi considered himself a broken man already. Whatever war was coming next? It would be the end of him. There was only so many times you could pummel a shattered stone until it all turned to dust and everything stopped working.

"But still," Kakashi said, just to rouse himself from the distinct feeling of fear cropping its way up, "why would she want that to happen? If there's even a chance of it, why?"

"She's a _Kumo-nin_ ," Jiraiya emphasised heavily and with a shrug, "for all the good her information will do us, we can never really understand her motives behind anything she shares. The only one I trust right now is Itachi—and only because he's proven himself. We do still have to be careful of her. Which is why I called you here at all," Jiraiya gave him a look that was a mixture of pity and intrigue. Kakashi loathed to find out more.

He eventually did.

Cutting right to the point, Jiraiya grinned, "She seems to like you so far! It wouldn't hurt if you could try to be her friend. You seem to have a knack for making unlikely friends anyway."

Kakashi narrowed his gaze at Jiraiya, then relented with a sigh. It wouldn't do good to argue when it was exactly what he had planned to do, just with a little less emphasis on the word ' _friend_ '. He needed to find out more, for Obito. He just hoped, whatever he uncovered, he wouldn't be too late to put a stop to.

"Can I leave now?" Kakashi asked, loathing the second Gamabunta woke up from his nap and decided to move. Jiraiya shooed him away, eyeing him knowingly.

He needed no other dismissal. He was gone before Jiraiya could turn to look back.

* * *

"Ita-chan, happy birthday!" Yugito roared out with glee, not wasting a second as she pulled him into her claws, smushing her cheek against his. She pulled away just long enough to kiss it and Itachi was weakly struggling to get out of her hug by the time she went in for a third one.

"I can't br—!" He sucked in a breath as soon as she dropped him on the floor in a heap. Then he was standing and he was staring at her resentfully, "I don't know why I humor you anymore. One day you'll suffocate me to death."

She shrugged and spun on the back of her foot, "I've invited a few people to celebrate with us for today."

Itachi made a sound that was as nearest to a groan as he got, "Yugito..."

"You're fifteen!" she burst out with excitedly, not facing him as she moved to the kitchen, "and I've found a new recipe for cake."

"At least, can we go out for dango later too? It's been a while," he mumbled, sliding past her and sitting at the table. It seemed like only a few days ago when he'd just silently watch her work, legs barely sliding against the wooden floors. Now he was so tall, his knees were knocking against the table. It made her both feel a sense of supreme satisfaction that she knew she had no place to feel, and a sense of regret for the fact that this would be as close as she ever got to watching someone grow—and he wasn't even done yet!

"I know," she told him with a smile, "and honestly? The cake is made out of dango." Yugito winked at him as she took a plate of takoyaki to the table, grabbing a stick just as he did. Based on experience, she knew that when she looked back, two more would have miraculously disappeared.

She grinned as she chewed on the savory snack, leaning against the kitchen counter as she looked at him thoughtfully.

"Who have you invited?" he asked after a moment of shared comfortable silence.

"Tamaki, and Yūsa can't make it due to a mission but Samui, Atsui-kun, Darui-san, Shī-san, and Kirābī-san said they'll be coming," she listed them off on her hand with a grin, "they're the only ones I could think of that actually like you without the whole Uchiha, Konoha-nin thing getting in the way."

"Atsui-san and Kirābī-san like me?" Itachi asked, looking honestly surprised.

She bobbed her head, "You're kind of like Samui, so Atsui-kun grew up around someone like you anyway. He at least admires you. Same with Kirābī-san. He respects anyone with power and well, you have _plenty_ of it."

"Is it true you had a crush on him?" Itachi suddenly asked and Yugito blinked.

She couldn't help the blush as she stammered out, "W-Where did you hear that?"

"Matozāki-san," he replied with a slightly bemused smile. She wondered how he did that. How he could look and act so irritatingly calm. She hadn't quite managed to do it as well as he naturally did. Yugito doubted she ever could.

"I did at one point," she told him honestly, then flushed even more when Itachi blinked at her in muted surprise. Defensively, she huffed out, "He's very kind!"

Itachi shrugged, "It doesn't really matter to me. I just didn't think he'd be your type."

Now she was curious because, honestly, she'd never managed to talk about this stuff with anyone before. Not even Samui—and she was her closest female friend. The blonde just didn't care to talk about things like romance and, to be perfectly clear, Yugito didn't really care all that much about it either. They'd mostly sparred with each other these days or talked about missions where their bluffs had worked only all too well. An easy friendship like all others but nothing so deep as to talk about things like...

With a bit of nervous apprehension, she asked, "Who do you think my type would be?"

He cocked his head to the side for a second, seemed a bit confused she was asking but inevitably released a tiny huff of air and murmured, "An equal."

It was vague and exactly what she'd come to expect out of him. But she still felt good that he'd answered at all, that he hadn't snuffed her over a topic as silly as love. Any other fifteen year old _definitely_ would have.

Yugito nodded at him and reached to ruffle his hair, loving the way the silky strands passed through her fingers. His face was a perfectly controlled mask but the slight dip to his shoulders, the slow blink of his eyes, the way he looked so much like a cat ready to take a nap, made her grin knowingly.

"I really do love you," she told him and leaned down to kiss his forehead. It felt good to say it, to say the words to someone else. Now that she thought about it, Itachi had been the first one she'd ever actually said the words out loud to. It was a strange thought, to think that in another world they would have never even met, that this precious person in front of her eyes could have been so bitterly different.

It made her glad for all of it, for having lived every inch of her life to get to him, to be there that day. To have been there to stop him and to _not_ have turned away. Cats aren't very brave, no, but on that day she _had_ been.

 _I could do more_ , she thought and it was a traitorous idea. Hadn't she already settled with the changes she had made? Hadn't she already convinced herself that some things were entirely too important to put a stop to? But it was all so vague, those memories, and she honestly had no clue if she'd already messed that up with what she did for Itachi—and what she still planned to do for him.

But it wasn't just his life in her hands, or her own. She _did_ know, a hard truth to swallow, that all of the other jinhūriki were apart of this just as much as she was. Her death and their deaths, had they really been necessary? If she could recall it, she knew that Naruto and Kirābī made it out alive. The Ten-Tails had been revived regardless and it had been because...

Because not the entirety of all nine bijūs were needed. When enough chakra was split off from the main source, it became a copy. The Ten-Tails and the revival of it, something _the_ Sage of Six Paths had known would happen, _was_ necessary for the unification of the shinobi world. But that didn't mean her death was, or that the others had been either. There was more she had to think about, things she couldn't remember but _needed_ to if she were to save anyone else.

 _Matatabi-san?_ She called out, slipping away from Itachi's sight as she headed into the living room and grabbed a book at random. She flipped through it aimlessly but saw nothing as the cat stirred within her.

**What is it?**

Yugito looked at the book in her hands with a flushed face, a bit sheepish as she wondered how to voice her question. She hated asking more of Matatabi than the cat liked to give, always feeling a bit too much like she was bugging or mistreating the bijū.

Finally, after a moment, she steeled herself and asked, _Is it possible that you and I could bring up my memories and go through them for more information? About the future of this world, that is._

**I don't see why not. But it could take some time to find what you're looking for. Do I have permission to look through them while you're busy?**

Yugito was surprised by the question. She knew Matatabi was a polite cat, but hadn't really expected to be sought after for permission. It made her feel both warm but odd. The cat had already seen her before, had already witnessed most of those memories in the past when Yugito was just a girl.

 _Sure_ , she said instead of voicing all of that.

Pleased that recalling those memories accurately wasn't just on her shoulders, she placed the book on the coffee table just before she heard footsteps climbing up the stone stairs that led up to her apartment door. Without thinking, she left to go answer it before the knock came.

It was only after Kirābī's face came into view and he was suddenly gazing at her looking a bit flustered, that she realized that she hadn't changed out of her sleeping wear. Which was really just a loose fitting cream colored tube top with mesh underlining and a pair of tightly fitted black shorts. She flushed, not entirely sure why she was, but she was embarrassed to be seen this way by Kirābī. Itachi was fine—he'd seen her at her absolute worst on some of those more awful missions—but he was also her roommate and pretty much her only family.

It didn't take a genius to see that while family could see you dressed in your birthday suit and not bat a lash, it was an entirely different story with outsiders.

Yugito attempted to salvage the situation, hastily pulling up her long blonde hair into a thick ponytail as she mumbled out a soft greeting. "You can find Itachi in the kitchen," she told him, then moved aside to let him come in, "I'm just—I'm just gonna go...change."

Kirābī seemed stunned to silence, still looking at her and though she couldn't see his eyes from behind his sunglasses, she had a feeling she knew where he was looking at. Hands going to her throat in an attempt to cover up, she turned on her heel and stalked out of sight. Equal parts embarrassed and almost slightly pleased to have made Kirābī recognize her as more than that silly thirteen year old she used to be, she rooted through her closet before pulling out what had become her usual wear.

With a short skirted lightly purple qipao, decorated by a few hand-sewn black and white cloud designs, the sleeves were shortened to the point of being nonexistent save for an inch that popped off her shoulders like spikes. She liked how dangerous it made her feel, which she needed in that moment. Following that were the black tights that ended an inch above her ankles, giving her a more sleek look—like she could slip off into the night without a single moment of notice. She gave herself a sharp smile before she neatened her hitai-ate and her pony-tail. Looking into the mirror, she decided that she _totally_ didn't care that Kirābī suddenly liked her outer appearance.

She got to wrapping her forearms, her ankles and feet, then pulled on her fingerless gloves and called it good. Last were her weapon packs and first aid kit—which she carried more for Itachi's benefit than her own—before she slipped on her issued shinobi sandals. They were expected to be called in to debrief for an A-rank, after all, even if it was Itachi's birthday.

The most they could spare for festivities were about an hour which would have to do.

In a rather cheerful mood, she left the sanctity of her bedroom and came into living room. She wasn't surprised to see Darui sitting on her couch, leaning back with a bored look on his face. Samui sat besides him, as silent as ever as she looked over two novels in her hand. Shī was there too, already chiding Kirābī for something or other, and Atsui was laughing his ass off over something that she didn't care too much about. Itachi, for his part, looked like the calm before the storm—which was to say that as far as his expressions go, he looked pissed.

She wasn't surprised to see them there, all having arrived while she'd gotten ready, but she was a little confused by the tension in the air. She blinked. Distantly, she could recall having heard a crashing noise but hadn't thought much of it at the time. Now, based off of Itachi's body language, she wondered if she was supposed to be angry too. For now, it was interrogation time.

"Uh," she started, clearing her throat, "what happened?"

"It wasn't cool," Samui started, her eyes remaining on the back of an action novel Yugito had yet to read, "your kitchen caught on fire when Kirābī dared my brother to reheat some of the leftovers in the fridge with a fire release technique. Itachi-san put it out before it got too bad but, incidentally, you'll have to buy a new fridge."

"And kitchen table," Shī added thoughtfully, turning away from Kirābī with a sympathetic expression.

Yugito frowned but wasn't particularly angry, more disgusted with them for behaving so stupidly. She looked at Kirābī, then Atsui and watched them flinch. The hot-head wasn't laughing anymore as he sheepishly scratched at his square jaw.

"You'll be paying for the damages," she told them coolly, "both of you."

"Man, oh man, I was actin' the fool, sorry that I went and lost my cool!" Kirābī snapped his fingers then went and took out a notebook and pen. Itachi made a low sound of surprise when the jinchūriki set to work on writing down his mad rhymes, humming to himself with the rhythm only a lyrical genius like him could have. Yugito met Itachi's disgruntled gaze and shrugged.

"So no cake today," she told them, then cocked her head to the side as she looked from jōnin to jōnin. There was Atsui, who was still a genin, but for the most part these were people that could haul and kick some major ass. She brightened considerably, "We should have a set of spars!"

"OH YEAH!" Kirābī shouted, pumping his fists in the air, sunglasses glinting with the light from the fan on the ceiling. Yugito nodded along with his enthusiasm—though she loathed to admit to wanting to shush him up for his painful way of expressing it—and watched as Shī and Darui exchanged looks.

"Bī can't," Darui said in a low, slow tone, "Boss doesn't want him going full out and wrecking the village like he did the last time he sparred. It's dull, I know, but that's how things go. Sorry, Yugito."

Kirābī's mood came crashing down and it was visible in every aspect of the word. He fell to his knees, denting her floor and generally making a nuisance of himself. She frowned at him.

"You're just adding to the costs of repairs," she told him sternly, then tapped her chin, "What if we set up a date? We could go to Turtle Island. Ay-san ought to approve of that. After all, we don't want Kirābī-san getting rusty."

"TURTLE ISLAND!" Kirābī roared excitedly and she flinched away from him, rubbing at her sensitive ears and scowling at him.

"Stop that," she snapped and he deflated once more.

"It'll be a heated match up if we do something like the Chūnin Exam does," Atsui said excitedly and with a broad grin, "I call going against Itachi!"

Said boy regarded the twelve year old with a look of pity and concern. But he said nothing, keeping to his vow of silence quite sternly. Yugito still didn't really understand it herself but she did know that Atsui would _definitely_ be regretting those words.

Samui smiled a bit but her expression was chilly, "When you lose, I'll go up against him next. Would be interesting to see the Sharingan for myself, see if it's as really cool as people say it is."

Shī looked around the room and sighed, "I'll probably have to bow out, I have a lot of paperwork to get to with the hospital."

"I'm up for a match," Darui said, looking at Shī in an almost accusing manner, "you should come. We'll finally see who's the dull one amongst us. I think Boss would like to hear how it all goes too," then he paused, turning thoughtful, "if he doesn't come with, that is."

Shī was hesitant but he nodded with a helpless shrug, "This is something he'd really go for."

"Turtle Island?" Kirābī asked after a moment, his head snapping in Yugito's direction cautiously before looking back to Shī hopefully.

"Turtle Island," he agreed.

* * *

**One Broken Man - End**


	12. Two-Tailed Guardian

**Two-Tailed Guardian**

* * *

"Turtle Island is a really big turtle that's big enough to be called an island. It's also where the Falls of Truth is at and the temple," she explained to Itachi once they were well on their way towards it. The boat they were on swayed gently though she knew it wouldn't before Kirābī or someone equally too excited to reach their destination would use any and all jutsu that would get them speedily to the island that was already looming up ahead.

"Is it a Kumo secret?" Itachi asked, hands on the metal railings before he kneeled down to flick his hands over the waves that pooled around them. He was being awfully cute that day, looking at the boat like he'd never seen one before, then exploring it like it was the most fascinating thing to see. Normally they could have water-walked the whole way, but they were fulfilling a minor D-rank—the excuse they needed to leave the village—by testing out the engine for the inventor of it. So far so good. Yugito wasn't really worried.

Yugito shrugged towards Itachi's question, "The island itself isn't. The Falls of Truth more so but only because it's so important for the jinchūriki." She paused, thinking before shrugging again, "But honestly? Anyone can visit the Falls if Ay-san gives them permission. It's a spiritual place, after all, where anyone can step into the falls and meet their true self. It's the first step in learning to control a bijū's chakra. Second step would be entering into the temple but I don't know. The other villages don't know about all of this, so I guess it _is_ a secret. Never really thought to ask."

"What was it like for you?" he asked and she had to shift uncomfortably, tapping her nails against the metal railing before meeting his curious gaze. He looked so calm...

"The truth is terrifying," she said to him after a moment and with a sigh, "I don't know if it's the same or different for everyone but it's where _some_ of us meet with our dark selves. Under the fall of the water, when you face the truth, it can be with the darkest parts, the parts many want to keep hidden and never unearth. Me? I met with _two_ selves." Yugito shook her head, still shaken from the experience she had undertaken _years_ ago when she was fifteen. "It's fight, die, or accept when you have the truth in front of you."

"Which one did you choose?" Itachi asked, looking at her thoughtfully and not without concern. He stood up straighter and knocked his hip against hers, a reassuring gesture. She managed a quirk of her lips but knew it didn't reach her eyes.

"None of them," she said finally, and she admitted something she'd never told anyone else before, "it was them that accepted _me_. I was the dark to their light."

Itachi was silent for a while, then, softly, "Tānība-san once taught me that in the world there are grey souls, people that don't fit into the world very well. He said I was one of them, and I thought you were too. But I think that," he paused, hesitated before he continued, "I think you bring color into a world of mixed shades of grey. I've never been to the Falls but I know _you_ and you aren't dark. You're human."

Would if she could, she'd believe him.

But he hadn't been there, hadn't felt the sting of their words when they'd taunted her and screamed. They'd shown her what she was _really_ like, shown her what all of her actions had ever meant and had been _furious_ with her for having been so callous and terrible.

" _You killed a man who loved us! He wanted to_ protect _us but you killed him and now he's gone!"_

She smiled at Itachi but it was a sloppy one and she wasn't sure how convincing it was. From his expression—not very.

"Do you want to visit the Falls?" she asked, changing the subject in the only way she could think of, "Is that why you asked if it was a secret?"

Slowly, he nodded but he still looked concerned.

"You'd have to talk to Ay-san, I think," she mused, then lifted a shoulder in a helpless shrug, "though I don't think he'd really mind if you went. Not now after you've signed on with Kumo and became a full initiate."

Itachi nodded his understanding before leaning back down to swipe at the waves that came up to greet them. That was about when Kirābī gunned it and _really_ tested out that engine. It got full points in her book.

* * *

"I'll be the proctor of this exam," Yugito called out cheerfully as Atsui and Kirābī did over dramatic stretches, making faces at everyone who dared look their way. With the two of them getting heated up, Yugito's grin turned dark, "First up on the chopping block is Atsui-kun and Itachi! As per requested. Who will win in the match? Atsui, the hot-headed genin with his flaming kenjutsu or Itachi, proud Uchiha with a fully unlocked Sharingan _and_ ANBU level skills that he's had since he was barely more than a teenager?"

"Proctor has a bias!" Atsui called out, face turning a bit red as he spoke up, "Proctor should shut up!"

"Proctor doesn't care!" Yugito called back, feeling more bemusement than anything, "and proctor says the match starts _now_!"

Atsui spared her a heated glare before taking off to make the first strike. Itachi mysteriously disappeared before reappearing behind the blond. With all the joking cruelty only a teenager could have, he tapped the twelve year old on the shoulder and watched with clear amusement when the hot-headed boy whipped around with his flaming sword.

Yugito was grinning as she settled herself on the edges of a cool pond, noting the way Shī, Darui, and Samui made a point of cheering loudly for Atsui, before admitting to each other that there was no way in hell for him to win. It was a sad truth, but only because Itachi had experience on top of ability and skill. He was nothing like the twelve year old boy who's biggest problem was still what to choose for lunch and most of his missions were still manning the checkpoints or picking up cat shit in the streets.

"Kirābī-san," Yugito mumbled, feeling her legs dangling off the edges of a wet rock, idyllically watching Itachi dodge every single attack Atsui attempted to make against him.

The light-haired man turned to look at her, drawing his face away from the match, an easy smile tugging on his lips, "Huh, got a question for me? Tell the great Kirābī!"

Yugito couldn't help the grin, knocking her leg against his before gazing up at him thoughtfully, "Do you remember the link?"

He blinked, looked confused before shaking his head, "Does it make me a fool when I say no like a tool?"

"No," she shrugged, "It's just something I sometimes go into with Matatabi-san. The cat mentioned that you and Gyūki-san have been there before with me but I don't really remember either." She shook her head and her grin broadened, "It's been making me think. See, the link is the shared consciousness of the bijū. We jinchūriki can only enter if we're in sync with them, like the both of us are with Matatabi-san and Gyūki-san. But the distance kind of hinders the connection for us in reaching out to the other jinchūriki."

**It's because we are not fully in sync, kitten. As fond as I am of you, there are still many things you must learn before distance is no longer an issue. Tailed Beast Mode, partial transformations...you've never had cause to do any of that. It's something you have never learned.**

_So it's not just the seals?_ Yugito asked, a bit confused, _I guess that would make sense because you have no problems reaching your siblings, do you?_

**Never, no seal could be so powerful to disrupt the connection completely. However, I respect their privacy as much as they respect mine. More so, there** _**are** _ **some seals that make it more difficult than it's worth. Kurama-san's seal is one of them.**

"So, theoretically," she asked out loud, "if I learned to be more in sync with you, to learn these new techniques, then I could meet with any of the jinchūriki at any time?"

**Theoretically.**

Kirābī stared at Yugito, curious as he gazed at her with his full attention—a rare feat—before he shrugged and said, "I don't fully understand, man, but it sounds like we can help our friend's stand."

"That's what I thought too," she grinned, crossing her legs as she faced Kirābī full on, "Matatabi-san just told me that in order to reach our jinchūriki family, we need to increase our sync rates with them. It'll allow us to pass through seal barriers and distance. Can you imagine? We jinchūriki could have a support group and we could invite the others here to this island and help them learn how to interact with the bijūs inside of them."

He was grinning before he stood up, pumping his fists in the air. Then he was turning to her and lifting her up, hefting her onto his broad shoulder before he spun on the slippery rocks shouting, "Jichūriki support group, here we come! We'll get good soup and eat as one!"

Yugito laughed against her hands, "You're hungry, aren't you?"

"Guilty as charged, Yugito Nii, the great and mighty Kirābī!" he roared with a boisterous laugh following closely behind. Then he shifted and let her slide off from her perch on him, coming to stare down at her with a broadened grin, "So about syncing, how do we get to linking?"

Yugito shrugged by way of _her_ answer before she turned to Matatabi.

 **Gyūki-san may be resistant to doing it, Kirābī-san will have to prove himself worthy before he allows him to try. But it's through meditation and chakra control. Meditation for the strengthening of your mind and its capacity to travel to other places it's not originally trained to go to. And** , Matatabi seemed to yawn inwardly as if this was all a dull affair, **when I mention chakra control, I don't mean over your own. Our sync rates will have more to do with your ability to control my chakra without my permission, or better put, your ability to use it as if it were your own**.

Yugito blinked, just slightly confused—she thought she already had plenty of chakra control in that respect. Even when Matatabi had refused to play along with her, Yugito had always naturally been gratified that the chakra melded each time she called for it.

 _I thought_ —.

Matatabi sighed, **While it's true that you seem to have a natural affinity towards directing a bijū's chakra, there is still much you have to learn. So far, to allow for your meetings with the others, that's about as much control as you already have. But that's only about 40% of what you could actually achieve.**

 _Does this mean that I could become stronger? Even more than I am now?_ Yugito was stunned at the idea. She was already considered one of the best fighters in Kumo. Perhaps not _the_ best, or even in the top five, but she was already stronger than most. To think she could move past that and beyond was strange...

**Kitten, the power you could have will be on par with that of an actual bijū. There's certainly a reason for why we're feared—and for you I would teach you how.**

Now she was hesitant, even going so far as to move away from the confused and curious jinchūriki to her left. Instead, her thoughts turned inwards and she seemed almost to have slipped into the link without thinking. She was just there, standing on the water and gazing up at a cat that could eat her whole but had never tried to.

"You'd give that to me? Y-You'd trust me with that sort of cooperation?" Yugito asked, eyes wide as she took in the magnificent blue flames that licked hungrily at the air and danced with a careful yet chaotic grace.

" **I have watched you since you were a small child, Yugito-chan. I have felt your pain and heard your dreams when no one else has been there to, the voice that you sought lullabies and stories from. The voice you cried and whispered to when the world showed you their hatred—and I was the one who watched you grow. I have heard you and your thoughts, I know you better than you know yourself at this point. In the end, I remember the things you could not bare to keep, and have done it for the compassion and understanding you've always shown me.** "

Yugito shook but said nothing, feeling an odd mix of emotions spread through her. There was that shared sadness, the same old pain that clung to everything in a shroud that refused to lift. Then there was gratitude for having had someone, even a sentient mass of chakra that had been forced to room with her, there for her at all. Matatabi _had_ always been there for her, through all of the testing and training, for the worst of her childhood from the rotten fruit being tossed at her to the group of jōnin that had attempted to kill her in her sleep.

Her only constant in a life that held far too many contradictions.

Finally, she felt the guilt settle in to grip its claws in her. This too, was as old as Matatabi in her chest. Yugito had always wanted to do more, had wanted to be there for the cat _more_. But how could anyone help a bijū give them what they truly wanted when it came at the cost of her life? Freedom could not come until after she died and by then, it wouldn't be a gift from _her_. It would be forced and just as painful as any of the worst prisons.

Matatabi's forked tail flickered and passed over head, exuding a soft warmth—suddenly there were memories of this having been a common occurrence when she was young, a child who could not fathom the world.

" _I'm sorry I'm a prison cell_ ," Yugito recalled saying once as a child, beaten and bruised to the point of being unrecognizable. What had Matatabi said to her then? She couldn't remember but it must have been warm cause that was all she could feel now...

" **Father said our purpose was to help protect the world and the balance in it, a purpose my siblings have forgotten and no longer respect,"** Matatabi said in a voice that was as soothing as it was achingly beautiful, " **But me? You are** _ **my**_ **cat, the one who has already proven herself to me and the one I intend to see the world bend to, if it were an act that would save you. After all, Yugito-chan, I have seen your memories and I promise you this now—you will not be dying before you have achieved your happiness."**

Yugito was shocked and wholly unprepared for the words.

The tears slipped through her eyes before her brain could even catch up and when she did, they were full-blown sobs. Yugito tried to stop herself, to organize herself and be presentable in front of the closest thing she had ever had to a grandparent. She wiped at her face and it was strange to be crying in the link, to feel the tears and wonder if they were reflected on her own actual body.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, Yugito calmed enough to speak.

"Thank you," she said, and smiled when the forked tail danced around to caress her face with that comforting warmth of blue fire. Then, fully aware of how embarrassing it was to break down and cry in front of Matatabi, she sheepishly looked up, "So what's first on the the road to syncing?"

Her cat friend seemed to grin, teeth glinting sharply by the refectory sky, " **A cat must have its ears and tails, no? You will practice and learn how to mold them, to form a partial transformation. This will take both of the prerequisites that I mentioned before. Meditate and learn how to feel for the chakra, know where it goes and** _ **how**_ **to mold it, then control it and form it.** "

"Kind of like what I do for the paws?" Yugito asked, hand on her chin as she thought, "That's the point isn't it? With paws I had my arms to go off of, to learn how to use my tenketsu points to shape the chakra. But ears and tail like a _cat._ There's no real equivalent for the shape so I have to make it on my own."

" **You always were a bright child** ," Matatabi said, then snapped at a stray flame like flitted about like some sort of butterfly.

Yugito smiled then looked at the cat thoughtfully, "I came here on my own, didn't I? So I should be able to go back too."

Matatabi said nothing for a while, just watched her in that thoughtful way the chakra beast did sometimes. Then two brightly shining eyes blinked and the cat released a sigh, " **Yes, but before you go, I do want to warn you about this training. There's a reason...there's a reason not many undergo it. Not just out of distrust. If a jinchūriki was strong enough, they could force their way through by sheer presence alone if they had enough of their own chakra to do it.** "

"Then what are you warning me about?" Yugito asked, honestly confused.

" **Syncing means that I will be sharing my essence with you, everything that makes me who I am. I am sharing this with you freely and though that will make it easier, we are both different creatures and...if things go wrong,** _ **your**_ **essence could be burned away into dust, there'd be nothing of you left if you were to be consumed by me. There's never been a jinchūriki who has ever been able to reach a perfect percentage with any of us. If they tried, they** _ **burned**_ **. Father is the only one I can think of that had it in him to do so, but you are not him.** "

"So what's the limit we're trying for?" Yugito asked, awed and just a little bit worried that this might have been too big of a risk for such power. But it made sense. No jinchūriki ever _truly_ had the power of a bijū. They had the general perks and boosts but nothing ever so cataclysmic. This could end in disaster but— _a chance, a real fighting chance_ —she felt the grin on her lips.

A challenge had just been presented to her and she wanted to reach for it, wanted to accept and _learn_. It had been a long while since she'd learned something that would take so much dedication out of her. She dared say she had even grown a bit complacent even in the face of all the B and S-ranks she'd been taking as of late.

Matatabi must have seen this because the next words out of the cat's mouth sounded downright insane. Yugito blinked.

"Come again?" she asked.

" **Ninety-nine percent** ," the cat said in a casual tone before licking at a paw.

"Okay," she breathed and would have been stupid not to admit she _wasn't_ afraid. But she could do this. Matatabi had trust in her, had _faith_ she could do it. The cat had never taught her anything that she had never learned in the end before. If the options were to die for the world to be united, she would have done it.

But there was always that voice that hissed and clawed to _live_. That day had not arrived and the voice took precedence when opportunities arose.

Yugito took it into her hands with both claws fully extended.

She opened her eyes to worried eyes seconds later.

"Nee-san?" Itachi called out and he sounded a bit distressed, like he'd been calling to her for a while. She blinked rapidly, feeling almost a bit woozy. Ughh, the dizziness was back. Why was it back?

 **You've overextended your mind. These things take time, kitten** , Matatabi gently told her and she nodded. Then she dipped forward when the motion came to be too much for her head that was suddenly pounding like a warhammer was being whacked against her skull repeatedly.

She had a high pain tolerance, yes. But this? This was intolerable.

 _Why is it so different this time_? Yugito asked, honestly perplexed and distressed to be feeling so many side effects.

**You drew on your own chakra reserves to visit me. Polite but you mustn't do that. Your chakra is your lifeline to who you are. You must not overtax the reserves you have in the least. From now on you will be using mine. It'll help you get used to controlling it.**

Yugito groaned and let Itachi lift her up into his arms. He was carrying her somewhere but she couldn't see anything much more than a blur of motion and his face gazing down at her in quiet concern.

"Yugito?" he tried once more and she groaned in response.

Then, trying once more for human communication, she said, " _Food_."

Itachi visibly relaxed and for all the pain she had just moments ago, it was fading quickly and she was already bouncing back by the time he helped her to her feet. Jinchūriki stamina for the definite win. Samui came by with a jug of water and they all shared quick glances when she went to stand on her own.

"How long was I out?" she asked finally, and was pleased to find that the headache was continuing to ebb away. The world was no longer spinning which was a definite improvement.

"Long enough for me to get my ass kicked," Atsui grumbled from his spot on the ground, his arms crossed over his chest stubbornly as Shī set to healing the genin's wounds. Yugito wasn't very sympathetic—you reap what you sow and he had definitely sown that match.

She looked at Itachi instead and he gave a subtle shrug.

"It was about fifteen minutes," Itachi said, then, more quiet, "What happened?"

"I took a trip to see Matatabi-san," she explained and sighed, "but I used my own reserves to do it. It's not like I'm Kirābī-san, who has a mountain's worth of chakra all on his own."

"So," Samui started, staring at Itachi with an odd look on her face, "you talk now? That's cool."

Itachi hesitated but slowly he met her gaze and nodded. "Cool," he said, and that was that.

Kirābī, for his part, was ecstatic, "His first word to us is cool! OH YEAH, he's a fool!"

"You're the leader of them," Shī muttered beneath his breath but kept a straight face as he dressed the biggest wound on Atsui's arm.

"This is crowd isn't very dull," Darui commented, then blinked, "That sort of rhymed."

"It was about time," Yugito said, unable to resist with a cat-like grin.

Itachi stared her down while Kirābī choked on his laughter. Even Atsui wheezed out a chuckle. All in all it went from a good day to an even better one when she got to kick Darui's ass after he kicked Shī's. Samui lost to Itachi and when it came down to it, it was made into a free for all when it came down to the last match. Kirābī vs Yugito vs Itachi.

With mute understanding, Itachi and her both took on the other jinchūriki together.

It was honestly a shame that Ay couldn't come—some paperwork could _not_ be put off—as he would have really liked to see the entirely too brutal way Kirābī had taken his attackers down. For all they had on their side, Kirābī was nothing short of a Kage-level shinobi himself and as strong as Yugito and Itachi were, they could never quite manage the _physical_ strength in which Kirābī latched onto with ease.

In short; he quite literally buried them in the ground.

Yugito couldn't stop laughing as Samui helped dig her up, while Itachi just looked stunned. He probably thought he could have beaten Kirābī but the main thing about the Eight-Tails jinchūriki? You never underestimated him, because he could completely blow you out of the water the second you did.

Helpfully, Shī, helped get Itachi out of his earth prison before offering a sympathetic smile, "First time facing off against him? Don't feel bad. It's still quite impressive that you're not actually dead from it."

"Sorry but yeah," Darui added, brushing dirt from Itachi's hair and clothes, "even Boss has trouble against him in spars."

"I've been going against him in spars since I was eleven and he'd join me," Yugito chimed in as soon as she could get her laughter under control—it was just so odd seeing Itachi look so surprised!—and when he looked at her, she continued with a large smile, "I've only honestly beat him twice."

And both times they had been cheap shots—not exactly her finest moments, though Kirābī had gracefully given her both victories and treated her to a bowl of tekkadon, with the finest tuna he could find. He was sometimes too good of a guy.

"We should hurry back to the village now," Shī murmured, looking at the sky as the sun began to set, "announce that the engine works marvelously."

"It'll be really good for trade," Yugito mused as she shook out the dirt in her clothes, "with having a means for faster transporting."

"There's an A-rank attached to this mission if you want to talk to Boss about it," Darui said in a low, easy tone, "Apparently it's a guarding mission? Some people want to take the inventor out before he could mass produce boats like this." He shook his head slowly and with a low sigh, "Some people are really dull."

"Sounds interesting," Yugito commented before looking at Itachi. He nodded and met her gaze. That settled it; they'd talk to Ay about it and see what was up.

* * *

**Two-Tailed Guardian - End**

* * *

**Bonus #2 - Matatabi's POV**

* * *

The cat never attempted to understand humanity.

Not really—not until her.

After all, it was easy not to think much of them. In Matatabi's eyes, there was no meaning in their lives or in their actions. They did so many things with such little power, attempted to be more than they actually were, and died. Their lives were short and often times filled with more death than life. They were sad, these creatures, and the cat thought very little of them. Even when captured and put into a human's body, Matatabi thought little of it. There was anger there, yes, but also the knowledge that freedom would come eventually and that, try as they might, humanity could never outlast a bijuu.

One day, being stuck inside a container would be just a bad dream of restriction and the beast would have a thousand more years for each one spent inside of a human's body. As it was, Matatabi still found ways to be entertained in what would be an immortal life and often times this would take the form of vindictive torture on the host and subsequent punishing of entire villages the moment the cat felt that _freedom_.

Total and complete, the ache of being able to be complete again, walking over the earth with crushing waves of chakra emanating from a body that would be coated in blue flames, swirling and swirling in a dance of life and death—paradise for a cat.

Matatabi felt that way for a time, did anything to feel that way again.

That is, until Matatabi met Yugito.

Even as a child, the girls were set up of contradictions. Sweet yet unwavering. Kind yet unrelentingly stubborn. Angry yet calm. Analytical yet unable to see beyond themselves. It would only make sense if one were able to see that instead of one, the girls were always two. Two minds, two hearts, and two souls in one body. It wasn't until later, until _after_ Yugito's childhood, did they become she and she remained one.

Matatabi never asked but did wonder; did Yugito remember this other girl? This other time that had ended in death and loss? The end of an era, of childhood—it always seemed such a cruel thing. Even Matatabi had experience with it and the cat rarely acknowledged any shared similarities with the humans. But the cat couldn't help but feel a kinship with the girl, couldn't help but look at the face of her and felt between them something that couldn't very well be described.

The cat had never been very close to any of the other bijuu, had previously only felt true love from Father—but this was startlingly different.

It wasn't love. Or was it?

Matatabi could never be too sure.

But in the end, it didn't matter because all the cat needed to do was protect the kitten.


	13. Three Deals Gone Bad

  **Three Deals Gone Bad**

* * *

"So why is this an A-rank and not a B-rank?" Yugito asked, looking at the mission files and feeling a bit miffed. They felt rather thin in comparison to what she was used to when it came to the higher ranked missions. Information was power, that much was always recognized, and Kumo accepted very few missions that were, for lack of a better word, suicide missions. Leave that to the other villages, Kumo had a certain level of discretion with their level of popularity in the large Land of Lightning and weren't afraid to turn away high payments if the mission parameters were unclear.

But this mission felt different and she had a feeling that she would soon come to regret coming to ask about it.

"This mission's run time is indefinite," Ay said with a bit of a sigh, looking just slightly miffed himself, "I wouldn't have accepted the mission query if it weren't for the credible inventor who needs our help. We've helped him before in the past and we've always gotten a high return rate. This engine of his would not only increase the rate in which we could transport things, he's designing machines that can increase rate of production too."

"So," Yugito started, frowning, "to summarize what you've just told us; we don't know for how long this mission would be, only that we need to guard a man for the length of however long it would take for production of the engine to be put in place, and that there's a risk of shinobi being sent to kill him. I'm assuming it's the shinobi risk that it warrants an A-rank? What kinds of enemy does this man have?"

"Not a man," Ay muttered, then he looked away from her sharp gaze with a soft cough. He gestured at the folders in her hand, "Second folder, page three."

She blinked at him before opening it up, first skimming through the top—something about a deal gone awry, someone being slighted—then looking at the photo of a boy paperclipped to the inside. He was cute, if she were honest, with large blue eyes and an almost doll-like expression. His black hair was cropped short, looking as fine as Itachi's was. He gazed at whoever was taking the picture curiously, warmly.

"Is this him?" she asked, and was a bit stunned to think that—she looked through the file—an _eight_ year old could be the great inventor with dangerous shinobi at his neck. Gone were the questions of if she'd take on the mission. She always hated it the most when children were targets and she knew damn well that she would have to do her best to stop it.

"Yes," Ay said, sealing the deal without having known it, "the threat of enemy nin will most likely be from Konoha or Suna, given that the boy's father slighted both of Hidden Villages when he was unable to meet their demands in trade. It's also safe to presume that they'll do anything to stop anything that gives us an advantage over them and I'd say advanced technologies is just that."

"Got it," she mumbled still flipping through everything that was known, "so we don't know _who_ will be sent but you'd be wanting to send a well rounded team that could defend against the jack of all trades in Konoha and the poison and puppet experts in Suna. I think Itachi and I will do that just fine," she said with a smile, "A jinchūriki and an Uchiha seems a bit like overkill but would be nice security for the unknowns that may crop up."

Ay smiled, "I thought you'd say that. The mission is yours if you want it."

"The mission time is indefinite," Itachi spoke up, and Ay jumped, blinking at the Uchiha as if he was seeing a miracle. Itachi ignored this and went on unperturbed, "but is there an estimate?"

"For about as long as it takes to get the engines into product, which could vary from three months up to a few years," Yugito read allowed from the folders and shrugged, looking at Ay, who was staring at Itachi with a look of complete and utter amazement.

"You talked!" he roared finally. Yugito and Itachi shared a look, hers mostly filled with amusement and his with quiet exasperation.

"Yes," he said after a moment of Ay staring at him, "my vocal cords have not been severed. So it would seem I can still make the necessary sounds to communicate."

 _Bastard_ , she thought fondly in her head.

Ay burst out laughing, slamming a heavy hand against his desk. The wood splintered dangerously in response before cracking completely when Ay continued to bang his hand against the poor desk. Soon, as he struggled to catch his breath, only destruction and mayhem remained of his office, nothing escaping his bludgeoning.

Shī took the chance to pop his head in through the door and instantly he paled. "Not again," he muttered underneath his breath before fully entering and giving a cool smile towards the Kage who was riding off on a wave of renewed laughter. His desk completely obliterated, it seemed his chair was next and she didn't want to stick around to witness more murder.

Yugito took a definitive step back and beckoned Itachi to do so as well.

"We'll accept the mission," she said to the Raikage, wincing as soon as the chair was tossed into the air and Ay got to pounding his fist against the floor. Not only was it terribly grating on her increased sense of humor, she seriously wondered over the mental health of her cousin.

"I think he likes me!" Ay said to Shī as Yugito and Itachi dismissed themselves, fleeing the room of terror.

Itachi snorted as they exited the building and he wryly shook his head, "Your Kage is weird."

" _My_ Kage?" Yugito echoed, with an incredulous look at him, "He's yours now too!"

Itachi shrugged, "He was right though. I do like him a bit—he's honest and gets to the point quickly."

She smiled then, laughing just a little, "Yeah, he's better than the last Raikage."

Yugito yelped when she realized what she'd just said out loud. She looked around herself and was glad to find that no one was looking at them as they trailed slowly back to their apartment to get ready for the mission. It was a bit silly, some people said stuff like that all the time, where they'd mention how amazing Ay really was. But it was instinct and it was driven there deeply that she shouldn't speak against the man that had ruined her.

But, despite all that, it was the truth, what she was saying. Ay had never done anything awful to her, had always been kind to her and treated her with gentle respect—something that seemed impossible out of a man like him. On the other hand, the Sandaime Raikage was still a figure in many of her nightmares, had starred in one too many by her count. _He'd_ been the one to issue such an order, the one that had left the only man she'd viewed as a father dead at her feet, his last words echoing in her ears.

Sensitive hearing was not all that it was cracked up to be.

Yugito had to physically shake herself out of the memories and looked at Itachi who had come to stand beside her, hand on her wrist.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly and it was odd that he should ask.

"Yes," she said, and it wasn't exactly a lie. Yugito wasn't there in the past anymore, this Kumo wasn't _that_ Kumo and it was about time she came to realize that. Things were looking up and she had Itachi at her side. She smiled at him and snaked an arm around his back before the two of them went back to walking.

Just feeling someone else's warmth was enough to bring her back from memories better left forgotten.

* * *

"My name is Tobio and I like to build things," the small boy said to her, blue eyes shining brightly with a child's look of curiosity and wonder. Different from that, however, was the sharp intensity of his gaze and the way he _read_ her. She had a feeling nothing escaped that gaze of his—better yet, he had the sharp intelligence to make sense out of all of it too. It might have made her uncomfortable had she _not_ lived with Itachi Uchiha, the genius prodigy to out prodigy all others.

"My name is Yugito and I like eating sashimi," she said with a grin.

"My name is Itachi and I like taking naps," he said definitively, with a purposeful nod, "it's a pleasure to meet you, Tobio-san."

Which about summed up the both of them when they were away from missions. Eating and sleeping—the bare necessities in life that the two of them enjoyed very much. After those two things was reading, of course, but it was rare to establish an actual hobby when faced with the amount of time consuming missions that hindered any sort of progress.

Well, sometimes she knitted just to feel the click and clack of needles in her hands working rhythmically together but she had nothing more than that. Which made her feel a little boring in the face of the eight year old inventor who liked to _build things_. At least her partner was better about it. Yugito knew that Itachi also had a knack for drawing, had taken to doodling when he was finished with a book and was already quite good at photo-realism with just a pencil and paper. He liked to draw the scenes from novels as described and most of his efforts were all rather beautifully done.

If he ever wanted to be done with the world of ninja, he had a real path of art in front of him if he wanted it.

"Can we not do the keigo thing?" Tobio asked, voice soft. He blinked languidly as if he was in need of a nap himself. Yugito suddenly felt a bit tired herself. She blinked. The kid continued after a yawn, "I'm not very good at being polite, though Mama tries to make me. I find it very stupid not to be able to say things the way I want to."

"I agree!" Yugito said brightly, even though she was used to being rather polite to others, if only to impress the cat inside of her who expected nothing less out of her.

"Good," he said with an approving nod in her direction, "anyway, I chose Kumo to protect me because I like clouds. Kiri and Iwa are dull and Papa messed things up with Suna and Konoha."

 _Darui would love this kid_ , she thought with a bemused smile.

Before she could add anything to the conversation, he was already moving on, handing out two folders and stalking away with the gesture to follow him.

"In one folder will be my daily routine, everything you'll need to know on where to find me and such," the kid sighed, before giving them dark looks, "don't interrupt my nap or bath time even if the Daimyo himself wants to talk. He's tried before and honestly, it's annoying."

_Okayyy._

Itachi and her glanced at each other and she raised a brow. What had they expected out of an eight year old genius? Not necessarily this.

"In the second folder," Tobio continued as he came to a metal door, undoing the latches with quick proficiency before pushing it open and entering into an entirely different realm of half-baked inventions and a bolt-head's wettest dream, "is a collection of all the meetings I'll have to make and the locations in where they'll be at—make sure you're on time to all of them and we shouldn't have any problems. Now," he cued with a rough but light sigh, pointing at a box of tools on the far side of the room, "be useful and bring those to me. I have some kinks to work out on the TCH-39 model and an inspector is coming to appraise it at five. So don't dawdle!"

And that was how Itachi and Yugito found themselves on an A-rank as two servants to a whimsically abrasive eight year old which a penchant for sweet snacks and making ironic metal-based puns. It would not be the highest point of their life, that much was very clear.

It was on the third day of this that things got... _complicated._

* * *

Kakashi almost a bit miffed when everything was all said and done.

He very rarely complained about missions that were given to him but they were usually covert ops—never minding that he was no longer actually a part of ANBU—tracking, and every once in awhile—if the Sandaime was feeling a bit cruel—he would play a henged spy. But very rarely did he serve on _bodyguard_ duty. It wasn't as if it wasn't in his skill set to do it well, but he just never had much of a knack for protecting people.

That much was plain to see in his obvious history of having outlived every single person he'd ever come to love. So, yes, he had a bit of a problem being given a mission in which his sole duty was to protect a life when he was much, _much_ better at taking them.

Worse was that _Gai_ was joining him.

"It's a most youthful day to take on this important bridge-building mission!" Gai yelled out and Kakashi was already trying his damndest to ignore the only man he dared call an actual friend. Mostly because at the rate he was going, Kakashi wouldn't have to worry about Gai dying prematurely—he'd outlive the Copy-nin, surely.

So it was _safe_ to be friends with the exuberant nin but that didn't make it any less annoying when his voice boomed too loudly against his eardrums. Sensitive hearing was rather useful and curious in the way that loud sounds up close typically weren't that awful—after a while, ears adapted to a certain level of common frequencies and adjusted themselves accordingly, which was why dogs could bark their heads off and still hear the stranger outside talking undisturbed by the sharpness of their own yapping—but it made quiet sounds up close even _more_ quiet and quiet sounds from far away even _louder_. Gai was an exception to all of those rules; his voice could pierce any level of tolerable frequencies just from sheer stubbornness and presence.

"We never go on missions together, this is quite a rare opportunity in store for us!" Gai beamed, flashing a thumbs up as the two of them launched themselves into a pace that would get them to the nearest village within the next thirty minutes.

Kakashi refused to sigh and instead, he just gave his friend an eye-smile, one that didn't reach his lips, and returned the thumbs up. Inwardly he was chastising the green beast for being so thoughtless. He wished Gai hadn't mentioned bridges. That was just _inviting_ the bad luck.

This mission already felt like it was going to be generally awful. The thing was that the pay was on par with the highest S-rank he'd ever taken before and it was all to placate the Hokage and his immediate reaction to turn down the query. Apparently some deal with the client went not as planned in the past and, well, cue the _bridge-building_ part of the mission. He didn't know why he was there for it all.

Probably something to do with the Sandaime being obstinate that he take a break from the wear and tear of ANBU-esque missions that he had grown too used to. Too little, too late, Kakashi thought and he would be lying if he said he wasn't annoyed to have been taken off ANBU payroll and yet still do some of the duties of one. But being irritated with a Hokage that merely had his best interests at heart? Some habits were harder to kill than others, it seemed.

Hiruzen Sarutobi probably just thought that some casual Gai-time—if you would excuse the pun—would help Kakashi ween off of those types of missions and move away from the seedier, darker missions that had become his bread and butter since the death of his teacher. The genin teams he'd promptly sent the hell away were probably apart of the same reasoning.

He wondered how long it would take for the Hokage to realize that some things just weren't as peachy-keen as he liked to believe. There were traitors and bad men in the world, after all, and Kakashi had never been blind to the reality of the world. It would have been a blessing, he thought, if he was.

But no, he'd been woken up from idealistic thoughts the very moment he came home to find his dead father's body and note that read, "Sorry". As if that would cut it—Kakashi felt a little ill at that last unintentional pun as his father had quite literally _cut_ it, his prized sword right in the gut and there had been _so much blood, dried and seeped into the cracks of newly darkened wood_. Then there was the _smell,_ clinging to the air long after the body was retrieved and the spot scrubbed clean, but never clean _enough_ —he tried to shake his head of the thoughts but promptly went back to them immediately.

Such was the way of life for someone like Kakashi who was constantly wrapped up in the past, wondering, questioning and waiting for the next worst thing to happen. He had a feeling that as long as he lived, as long as he breathed air into his lungs, that the world would not be satisfied until they exhausted their supply of hatred onto him. Kakashi would have to experience it to see though. If there was anything his father taught him, it was to value life—his, especially.

The Hatake clan did descend from the samurai up north after all, and there was such a thing as paying for mistakes in the act of sepuku. Sakumo's actions in saving a teammate were, after all, the cause of the Second Shinobi World War and the cause of many more deaths. Kakashi used to loathe the man and his idea of _atonement_.

He'd also once entertained the thoughts of following in his father's footsteps for having failed his promises—so, _so_ many promises, _I'm sorry_ —but then he realized how the punishment of death could never quite match karma in life.

Now he just wanted to sleep.

But maybe that was just more to him having only gotten an hour of it before pushing his way to a dead sprint. Kakashi was not known for his stamina, at all. He was known for ending things quickly and efficiently, using his genius with tactics and traps to lure people in and destroying them utterly before they even had the chance to squeak his name. He wasn't the type to enter into battles that took more than a few seconds and though his stamina _did_ take a considerable leap when Gai got involved, the fact of that never changed. Which was probably why he had to eventually slow down on his speed and was quietly grateful that Gai followed his lead without question.

Though he did have an added commentary.

"The sun is shining so brightly through the leaves on this absolutely marvelous morning! Everything is the picture of paradise, of youth! We have been quite fortunate to have been born in a land as flush with life as this one is!" Gai prattled on in that earnestly gushing tone.

Kakashi realized he was a little weird in how at ease this made him feel to listen to. As annoying as he could sometimes be, Gai was always good for a genuine laugh. More concerning would be if Gai _wasn't_ behaving like a man who had dipped his hands a little too much into the experimental mushrooms at the medic office. Which was a bit of a terrible simile because Gai was both naturally this way and those mushrooms were a weak joke—Kakashi didn't exactly know this from experience, of course. Ahem.

Eventually, with Gai running his mouth off the entire two days it took to traverse to the Land of Lightning, they reached their client. Immediately Kakashi was uncomfortable as he surreptitiously glanced at the other people glaring at him and Gai. The latter was either happily oblivious to the obvious hostility against Konoha-nin or he was just very, very ecstatic to see another landscape. To the Copy-nin it was all just a bunch of boring rocks and cliffs but to Gai, it was the best thing to witness since the Yondaime's face being carved into the rock that overlooked Konoha.

"Look at those flowers blooming through the cracks!" Gai cheerfully pestered him, "Such determined youth! The Land of Lightning is _beautiful!_ "

Kakashi sighed.

He hated missions in other lands distinctly for a reason in which he had no idea what was to come in them, a distinct, dangerous _unknown_. Missions that carried over into other lands were always a bit awkward for everyone involved actually. Peacetime regulations meant it could theoretically be done with ease but that never stopped anyone from attempting to murder each other and claim the defense that _oh no, it was_ him _that started it, not_ me. In fact, he recalled that in Kumo's Bingo Books, they had a hit on him.

Kakashi could potentially have some major problems cropping up just by being so close to the Hidden Village. He attempted to muffle his next sigh with a cough. The Hokage _really_ needed to think things through other than, "Oho, go have fun with your friend on this high paying S-rank, should be easy for you!"

Because easy didn't exactly withdraw from the trouble of having to deal with it in the first place—and no S-rank he'd ever been on was simply just that, even if _this_ one was less of that an more a glorified A-rank.

As if on cue of his thoughts, that was right around when the client appeared.

A flustered man, red in the face and clearly worried about _something_ came running up to them, voice a bit of a wheeze, "Hello, Shinobi-san! My name is Harua, and I believe you were the Konoha-nin I requested..."

"Yup!" Gai said brightly.

Harua deflated, "Oh, uh, this is _awkward_ but uh, it seems that I was a little too fast in hiring you." Kakashi quirked a brow and the man, who looked no more than to be in his mid-thirties with the pretty face that would have suited a woman much more—not that Kakashi was one to judge on that— continued to wheeze.

"Maa, what do you mean?" Kakashi asked, equal parts intrigued that he might just have a way out of the mission and agitated that he had to make the journey in _Gai_ 's company just to be told to leave.

"My son took his safety into his own hands and hired a pair of Kumo-nin," the blue-eyed man said, slicking back his dark hair before bending into a bow, "But I'd like for you to stick around and maybe, uh," he hesitated, glancing back and forth between a bewildered Gai and a cold-faced Kakashi, "work in the shadows?"

At first he had no clue to what to say. Gai didn't seem to either and he looked to Kakashi with a shrug. Thing was that even if the mission was a doozy, he'd still have to go through the paperwork of issuing a cancel and refund for a man who jumped the gun. The Hokage would certainly be pissed to have lost the income and that _bridge-building?_ More like a burned bridge set on fire by the people standing on it.

Messy, messy.

"Are you trying to say that we should protect your son from outside forces while at the same time hiding ourselves from the Kumo-nin hired to do the same job?"

The man wiped away the sweat on his face and nodded, "You don't know what the Raikage does to people who work with Konoha-nin behind his back. We have a special contract with him that states we can deal business with the other Hidden Villages but still! This will completely ruin everything for my son if this gets out! Then the Hokage will never trust our business and my son will never fulfill his dream of spending winters in the Land of Fire!"

He hated rich people—little odd considering his sizable savings and the small fortune his father left behind but it was true nonetheless. Rich people just had the oddest sense of priority, one that Kakashi just couldn't wrap his mind around.

Gai was vigorously nodding now, "Of course we'll stick around to protect your precious son! To protect youth is the best sort of mission and it would go against everything I believe in to turn my back on such a thing! Show us the way to your son and we will do our best to protect your son!"

_Ugh, this mission report is gonna be a pain in my ass._

He could already see the Sandaime raising a brow the moment he related back the situation, the fact that they were sticking around for a mission that was already covered by another Hidden Village. The only saving grace was that the clients were different—which only helped, huh, not at all. From what he knew of the Raikage, this could definitely ruin Harua and Harua's son's life. Which clearly meant one thing; he was to be surrounded by idiots on this mission. Unless Harua intended to get them to somehow lie—very unlikely, even Gai would never skimp out on the details of a mission—the Hokage would be similarly furious to find that _another_ deal with the client had gone awry. Not a very stable bridge to build.

In short, Kakashi was not jealous in the slightest of the stupid rich people that had somehow thought it was a bright idea to get wrapped up in the awkwardly tense situation with the Hidden Villages. It wasn't surprising—civilians so often forgot that shinobi weren't only just that. Wars between them had seen to that.

" _I'm a shinobi and I don't believe in sides anymore."_

Itachi, for all he was worth as a genius prodigy, was painfully optimistic about the world.

It was funny that he was thinking that, just as he caught the scent of his old ANBU teammate. Immediately he put two and two together and had to take a pause. If Itachi was there then that meant _she_ was close by too.

_Making friends, hmm?_

Maybe the mission wouldn't be quite as dull as he thought.

* * *

Yugito was checking the security seals, making the rounds with the intent to stop by the kitchen and make a quick snack for Itachi and herself. Mostly though, she was bored. There was only so much she could do as a glorified assistant to an eight year old who spent the entire day inside of his room tinkering around with large and often times obscenely terrifying inventions that she hoped would never see the light of day. Yugito didn't quite think the world was ready for airplanes if she were honest, or the motorcycles the kid was _clearly_ excited about.

"It would be cool if you could test it out for me," Tobio was saying to her as she stepped back into his room with a tray of onigiri. He helped himself and bit into the lightly salted rice balls with a grin, "Thanks. You make better food than Mama."

Yugito cringed and hoped Asuka wasn't around to hear that. The woman possessed the sharp intelligence of her son and used it perhaps, if it were even possible, more _creatively_. She wasn't fond of the idea of getting on the mother's bad side. She'd already seen what she did to her _husband_ —though in all honesty Harua deserved every bit of what he got. Yugito wasn't sure if _she_ could handle such a stupid man but Asuka seemed fond of him despite all of his mistimed blusters.

The latest one had nearly left the beautiful red haired woman bald. Yugito had a real respect for her by this point.

Either way, she murmured a quick thanks at the compliment and looked around to find her partner.

"Where's Itachi?" she asked, and dared take a whiff of the air just to check if he was hiding. Sometimes he liked to test her senses, check how quickly she could find him just by walking into a room. The answer? Usually immediately. Save for older scents, he was not there currently.

"Outside," Tobio answered her in a bored tone as he eyed the rubber tires that he'd spent most of the week testing. Yugito nodded, shrugged and turned on the back of her heel to head back out and search for the oddly missing Itachi. They tried to keep one of them by Tobio's side always but Itachi had obviously gone off for a reason and—.

Then she froze.

Kakashi Hatake stood right before her eyes. He gave her a one-eyed smile, one hand holding the copy of an Icha Icha novel. She still couldn't really see which one it was. It didn't really matter. He waved at her, kunai in hand as just another taunting reminder of the memory from years prior.

"Yo," he said.

 _Shit_ , she thought, and not for the first time.

* * *

**Three Deals Gone Bad - End**


	14. Four Unlikely Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to fix this chapter still but for now it's going up. I'm aware of the plot-holes in here and the shitty way I dealt with Kakashi's side of the battle. I have the ideas to fix it and everything but I am emotionally not able to handle forcing myself to write something I don't enjoy. Read not with the eye of a critic please, I'm fine with them when they're substantial, but this is mostly a fic for fun.

**Four Unlikely Friends**

* * *

Kakashi and her were knitting together, needles clicking and clacking as they went along their work silently. She was working on a cat hat—presumably for Itachi—and he was working on a scarf that he would later give to one of his dogs. It was the first time he was actually _knitting_ for them. Most of their clothes were sewn together as the methodical task of piecing fabric together and closing the gaps was cathartic and calming with thin little needles. Knitting was turning out to be a bit different but mostly because he felt a little bit more violent with two hooked needles pulling and pushing at the yarn that balled in his lap.

It required no less attention to detail however and he was in the midst of marveling at Yugito's ability to add cat ears to the creation in her palms. She was the vision of calm, her expression at complete ease as she worked on a grey cat ear while softly humming an almost nostalgic melody. It was a very different face than that of what he'd seen yesterday when she'd been fuming at the mission gaining two foreign shinobi as temporary "teammates".

Kakashi winced—it was probably best not to put a name to what their circumstances were.

That was just _asking_ for a headache.

She didn't actually seem to mind Gai or him, as it turned out but she had definitely stressed how terrifying the Raikage was going to be once he heard about the changes. It was a bit complicated considering both of the respective clients were different, not exactly being against the rules but the turnout was nonetheless made awkward because, well, Kumo and Konoha _really didn't get along_.

Except they sort of were at the moment.

Yugito continued to hum in that silky voice of hers, her dark eyes shining pleasantly as her fingers worked quickly and efficiently. He was getting just a touch bored which was probably why he was looking at her but that didn't change the fact that he was _definitely_ beginning to look.

Her hair was down, unfortunately for him, and her bangs framed her face making her appear that much—Gai can't read thoughts, don't worry—more youthful. It caused Kakashi to sigh, because she was steadily leaching his energy away just by being in such close proximity. It was easy to think that she was beautiful, but it was an entirely different matter when she was a Kumo-nin who had _really_ fucked with his mind.

He cleared his throat. She looked up, blinked and quirked her lips revealing the tip of a sharp tooth.

 _Goddamn, that's adorable_ , he thought traitorously before turning back to the scarf taking form in his hands. It wasn't her fault for being painfully similar to one of the main female leads that Jiraiya had created in his Icha Icha series. Cat-like, flexible, and with a chilling look that could shut up any soul that dared talk back to her. Then there was also her quirky smile that seemed charming and definitely set her off from Maki's personality of ruthless punishment. Okay, his mind needed to shut up now.

"Did you want to say something?" she asked.

 _Well, duh_ , he thought with a internally breathed sigh.

Kakashi just didn't know how to word it. His basic instinct was to torture the information out of her but that came more down to the fact that he was _not_ in T &I and didn't actually know how to get the right information that he needed without bashing in some skulls. Then there was the added fact that torture wasn't the most reliable source of information...

"When we first met," he started hesitantly which made him feel odd because he _never_ hesitated.

"Oh," she said, then she seemed to flush which was even odder. Yugito looked embarrassed. This fact was only solidified when she dropped the hat into her lap and faced him with red lips that pursed awkwardly, "Sorry for, uh, _that_." Her eyes seemed to wander before finally resting on his, her lips opening up slightly as if she had something more to say. She remained silent and his gazed remained focused on her mouth.

He looked at her, trying to read her—she was impossible to read actually, goddamn it—and sighing outwardly when he could only see honesty in her. Yugito was either a very skilled actress or she was actually telling the truth, much like the time he'd first met her.

She was sorry for it. Sorry for the way she completely and utterly _fucked his head up_.

"So, Obito's alive?" he asked finally and she blinked owlishly at him.

"Y-You believe me?" she asked, eyes widening, her mouth slipping open only to close seconds afterwards. Yugito looked as confused as he felt. Parts of him were starting to hate her. Other parts were amused to see this expression on her face. Kakashi got a sick sense of joy out of confusing people.

"Tentatively," he told her.

"Oh," she sighed out softly and her voice sent a thrum of heat up his spine. He was back to hating her again.

Kakashi avoided women like her on purpose—women that were actually, for lack of a better word, his _type_. Which was commonly the ones like her, smart and knowing clearly their duty, no hesitation in their actions to see it through. Not to mention that they usually had enough physical strength that he didn't worry he would break them upon touching them. Sometimes, just because he was a _guy_ , he would hook up with women like her just to itch the scratch. It was more rare than one might think out of a guy who carried porn around but often times it just wound up making him feel awful. He didn't know why, just that he did.

He couldn't avoid Yugito nor could he itch that 'scratch'—she'd probably kill him if he attempted to flirt—so now he was at a bit of an impasse.

It wasn't just because he continued to suspect a hint of insanity from her, or that she was a Kumo-nin, it was that looking at her made him tired and sad. Probably because he had the feeling she was looking through him and _knew_ him, knew his carefully guarded secrets and _fuck_. Kakashi wished desperately that he wasn't on the mission anymore. His fingers got back to knitting, imagining the needles in his hands as kunai clashing on a battlefield.

Finally, because he was beginning to choke on the lack of knowns and the growing mass of _unknowns_ , Kakashi spoke up, "Obito, do you know where he is?"

Yugito's eyes turned dark and she shook her head, "No and even if I did it wouldn't matter. You couldn't reach him."

"What do you mean by that?" he wondered and this was the girl who blamed his teacher's death on Hashirama Senju, a man who was dead before Minato had even been born. He should take everything she said with a grain of salt.

"His Sharingan," she said, her tone like silk as she said the word that had been both the bane of his existence and a blessing in many ways. He quirked a brow at her in question and she sighed, shaking her head, "I don't remember how it works at all but he has something called Kamui. It allows him access to space time ninjutsu and permits him to enter into other dimensions and fast travel to other areas. Or something like that."

Kakashi blinked because well, that was simply insane. Something like that would be...well, a real game changer to say the least. Did that mean it was a skill—

Yugito glared at him like she knew what he was thinking.

"It comes from the Mangekyō he has, you ass."

Okay, so he was obviously missing some key information there. _Ask better questions then_ , he told himself. Then he wondered what those could be. He didn't really know for sure if everything she was saying was the truth, after all. In the end, she was still a Kumo-nin who was ready to let the second coming of the Warring States era arrive and warn _no one_.

"What happened to him? After the rocks," he said, and he wondered if she'd even know. Not many knew the details about that mission as it blended in with the rest of them. It had only been one of many missions that had ended with a teammate dead, with wars being as messy as they were. But she'd known about the gift and about his pulsing eye.

"He was found," Yugito said, scrunching up her nose as if she was smelling something distasteful, "by, uh, Madara Uchiha. He's, _was_ , a tree man or something."

...what.

"Look, it's kind of hard to remember the specifics," Yugito eyed him, her expression sour as he stared wordlessly at her. "You try having a bunch of useless information stuck in your head since you were a child and being forced to remember it all because suddenly it actually matters!" She tossed her needles away from herself and crossed her arms with a huff. He was disturbed to find how cute it made her look.

"Wait," he started, shaking himself from his more stupid thoughts and trying to understand, "you've known all of this since you were a kid?"

She scowled at him but nodded. Then, she released a heavy sigh, "Yes, and I know a lot of things. Things like who Konoha's jinchūriki is, who his parents are, who his jōnin sensei will be, his genin teammates, and the person he'll end up marrying—hell, I even know his kid's names!"

He stared at her silently.

"Naruto, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, you, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, Hinata Hyūga," she said, ticking them all off from her fingers. As she got to the last finger she looked at him dead in the eye, "he'll name his children after his dead father and Hinata's mother, Boruto and Himawari."

Kakashi sighed, "So I'll be his jōnin sensei?"

He didn't dare question that point of hers—fate had it's way of tormenting him endlessly so it only made the most sadistic sense that his genin team would leave him teaching his teacher's son. Fuck. Not to mention there would be an _Uchiha_. Next thing he knew it, the girl in the team would become a _medic_ —and fuck, that would just be especially cruel wouldn't it? He hesitated to ask if she knew.

"Yup," she said cheerfully.

"What's the Akatsuki's purpose and when do they intend to attack?" Kakashi asked suddenly, not wanting to beat around the bush anymore. It didn't matter if she could actually see the future or not—if nothing else, she did her homework on the fundamentals at least.

Yugito plainly hesitated, then she picked up her needles and got back to awkwardly using them, her face uncertain. She opened her mouth and shook her head. The blonde met his gaze after a moment and gave an unsatisfied huff. "I don't want to talk to you anymore," she said childishly.

He was unimpressed.

"Too bad," he told her, "because I'm not going to sit around while you help arrange the Fourth Shinobi World War." Ironically, he was sitting down right next to her _knitting_. It was beginning to look like a lovely scarf.

She winced but said nothing.

Ugh, did she actually have to be stubborn? Kakashi had dealt with enough of that from Obito, he didn't want to suffer anymore from headstrong personalities. On the brightside, his attraction to her was slowly but surely fading into a distant memory like it had never been there at all.

"They want to locate and extract the bijū," he said with a sigh, "that I understand. But why are you helping them do it by saying nothing? Is this something that Kumo wants? A war that'll tear the entire shinobi nations apart?"

Yugito pursed her lips tightly and she glared at him fiercely. Still, she said nothing.

"If they extract the bijū from you, then you die. Do you want to die, is that it?"

It was then that he struck a nerve.

She slapped him in the face with the cat hat, a completed work that fell to his lap and felt both soft to the touch and entirely too soothing to bring much comfort. He held it cautiously, quirking a brow at her. Yugito was standing in front of him, her figure even more clearly defined by the hand on her hip, the fabric of her qipao dress shimmering as she moved. Kakashi swallowed and noted how much she looked as if she was going to explode in fury. Which would definitely be bad considering that she was a jinchūriki. Kakashi wasn't actually too concerned about that, however, not after knowing what he did about her past.

Yugito was definitely crazy but it wasn't an unfounded craziness.

"That's yours, you idiot," she told him and stalked out of the room with a sway to her hips that made his brain betray him once again.

He decided he was a touch crazy too for getting up to follow after her, lovely scarf forgotten, hat clenched in his hands.

* * *

Gai was nice. She liked Gai.

Kakashi was interesting but not so interesting that she wanted to talk to him still. In fact, she wanted to punch him in the face and definitely would have if Gai didn't immediately step into her view and grin widely.

"Yugito-san!" he cried, arms opening up wide, "You're early for your shift! For you to be so excited to do your duty, the power of youth truly dwells inside of you!"

"Yeah, I guess so," Yugito blithely said, attempting to calm herself before she faced Tobio and Itachi. Itachi would immediately know something was wrong but Tobio wouldn't and that was the whole point wasn't it? She needed to impress the client or at least make the kid feeling like he was in good hands.

She couldn't help but sigh. Even five days into the mission it was looking to be both the easiest A-rank mission she'd ever taken on, and also the most trying. It was painful how the contradiction suited her mood. Yugito ground her teeth thoughtfully as she moved around Gai and entered into the wide expansive bedroom that was really more a garage with how much stuff was placed inside. From ceiling to floor there was scattered projects all about the room, assembled as neatly as it could be but with the mad sort of system that only an eight year old could think up.

Quite frankly, half of what she saw she couldn't make sense of so she never even tried.

"Yo," she said as she walked in and winced because, hell, he _was_ rubbing off on her. Next thing she knew, she would be reading porn out in the open with no consideration for the impressionable kids around.

"Mama wants to go shopping today," Tobio said as soon as she came into his view. He seemed to view her as the leader of the shinobi who watched him, never minding the fact that she was the only genuine Kumo-nin. More shockingly was that Gai didn't seem to mind working with her, nor did Kakashi snipe at her if she tried to give him an order. They just did what she asked and it worked.

"Do you want one of us to go with her?" Yugito wondered, eyes connecting with Itachi's as he looked up from reading a book in the corner.

"Yes," Tobio said, not looking up from the blueprint plans springing to life beneath his careful hands, "Cats. I want the cats to go with Mama. The turtle is more useful here for product testing and the raven likes his perch."

Yugito blinked as she looked at Itachi in befuddlement. He shrugged, before going back to his book, completely leaving her to just, well, go along with it.

"Okay," she told Tobio, "the, uh, cats will go with Asuka-san."

"Mama," he corrected, drawing a quick line over what was beginning to look like a moving castle.

"Mama," she agreed.

So, she couldn't exactly ignore Kakashi yet. With a barely contained sigh, she turned back on her heel and met a single onyx eye that blinked at her lazily. That's when she _did_ sigh.

"Asuka-san needs us to go with her on her shopping trip," she told him as she latched a finger onto his sleeve. She guided him through the house as he trailed behind her with sluggish footsteps. Yugito had the certain advantage that she'd been in what could really only be called a castle, and found her client's mother easily in the kitchen as she flitted around.

Sweeping her red hair into a bun and looking up with widened violet eyes, she grinned when she caught sight of Yugito. Then she blinked in surprise upon seeing Kakashi sticking close besides her. Yugito made a point to put a bit more distance between them and _he_ made a point to give her an aggravatingly 'knowing' look.

"Tobio is being generous with his bodyguards," Asuka said with a laugh, "Well, if you don't mind, I'll certainly be putting you both to good use. Hope what they say about shinobi strength is true!" She winked at Yugito, who had already proven the saying ten-fold by lifting an entire boat into the air. Tobio, surprisingly, could be quite mischievous and had intended to test the shinobi and their ability to find him. It had become something of a game since then.

Yugito pulled up her bandana to cover her face like she always did when she went outside on a mission. She stared at Kakashi defiantly when he gave her a look she couldn't decipher. Whatever, so what if she was a bit of a copycat?

"This is officially the oddest A-rank I've ever been dealt," Yugito said softly to Kakashi while they trailed a bit behind Asuka as she led the way to the market grounds. It was something of a thirty minute walk on the legs of civilians though Asuka seemed to enjoy the hints of wildlife and nature on her way back to civilization. They were a rather strange family too—an entire castle-size house and only three of them living in it. Made her wonder what sort of plans they had for the future and how exactly they had so rich in the span of the three years Harua boasted had been their 'growth spurt'.

"This is an S-rank for me," Kakashi replied, his eye on her when she looked up at him in mild surprise. He shrugged, "It's paid like one."

"That's so unfair," she muttered, "you get to have _this_ as an S-rank on your records? I've gotten twenty-four of them and each time there has _always_ been a near-death involved. Oh, wait, correction, some people _did_ die."

Kakashi lifted his shoulders in an, 'eh, what can ya do?' way before turning a page in his porn book and asking with a curious glint in his eye, "What rank did Kumo assign on that Sharingan mission?"

Yugito scowled, "B-rank."

At that, Kakashi chuckled, his shoulders shaking as he casually read his book and listened to her. The sound of it was throaty and deep, seeming to vibrate through her core as suddenly as he had laughed. Yugito blinked in surprise at that before shaking her head to keep herself focused, reinstalling her scowl.

"Kumo doesn't mess around," he noted, still chuckling before he turned another page. Yugito wondered how he could be so damn good at multi-tasking.

"No," she said with a bit of a grin even as she inwardly winced, "the village doesn't."

After that, it was almost more comfortable walking beside him as they assisted Asuka in her shopping. They didn't say anything else but even with the new mood, there was still that tense layer of expectation. He wasn't giving up on their discussion of earlier. Well, shit.

She could stall, of course, but the mission time of this was _indefinite_ , and although Ay hadn't gotten back to her about the updates, it wasn't as if he could just pull her out from the mission. The client was still a paying one. Yugito had no real way to keep Kakashi from pestering her, short of ripping out his tongue. Which wouldn't exactly build his non-existent trust in her.

The problem wasn't exactly telling him the truth—she'd already blown the cap off of _that_ with Itachi—but she still didn't know how to divulge the _rest_ of the information. It was all very outlandish and it wasn't as if she had _any_ definite proof. Yugito also didn't know how much had already been affected with Itachi safe and with Sasuke knowing the truth behind his brother. She couldn't depend entirely on her spotty foreknowledge, she needed to _think_ before she acted—and unfortunately for Kakashi, she needed to think before she decided on what to even say.

It was such a headache.

Before long, the act of shopping was completed, bags building up in each of their hands along with the extra bedding for the newest interlopers. Asuka was merrily humming as they made their way back to the house, a long trek that took a little under an hour. It only served to make Yugito all the more curious about the odd family that she'd found herself looking after. She couldn't help but raise a brow at the enigma it all presented with a family of three living inside a home that looked far more fitting for a large well established clan. They were filthy rich, lived reclusively, and the son was the _breadwinner_. Put simply, it was interesting to see it and be around them.

Kakashi reached out and brushed his palm across her back, bringing her out of her thoughts just as she heard it. The whistle of a sharpened kunai whizzing right past her. She blinked in surprise but was already moving as she hefted Asuka into her arms and sprinted through the large home's entrance. With the extra boost of chakra enhanced speed, she rushed the woman in her arms all the way into Tobio's bedroom.

Itachi was at her side in an instant and Gai paused in what he was doing—balancing on top of a turtle riding a motorcycle—before stepping off and looking at her questioningly.

"Kakashi and I will take care of the enemy," she said in what she often thought of as her mission voice, cool and with no room to argue. Her gaze flickered over to Itachi, "Stay here with the client. We'll return soon."

He gave the barest of nods but she was already moving out, thoughts focused entirely on the possible threats that they could be faced with on what had been a pleasant mission so far. Torn between worrying about Kakashi possibly being outnumbered, she had to remind herself that he was _the_ Kakashi Hatake. A major name coming out of Konoha and a general badass. He'd be fine on his own for a few seconds.

Nevertheless, she sprinted down the halls and through the house as quickly as she could without bulldozing into the walls and making a mess of everything.

Things took a turn for the irritating when not one, but two bodies hopped into view, moving too quickly to get too good of a look. For a second, she glimpsed the symbol for Kiri and her gut tightened in that uncomfortable way as she twisted just in time to dodge an accurately swung fist aiming for her gut. Her claws grew in reaction to the danger, and when a kunai was sent sailing into the air from her second enemy, she deflected it easily.

Fights don't last very long, they often move too quickly to even fully comprehend everything. The body moves on instinct, it loses everything unnecessary to survival, the trained mind focuses on the threat and analyzes the best way to take down an enemy. Physical strength increases just from the fear, the _drive_ to move forward and _destroy_. All of this happens in minutes, if not seconds.

Yugito wasn't feared for no reason, she wasn't a main fighting force all on her own from just being a jinchūriki. No, ever since she was a young girl still reeling from the shock and heartbreak that went hand in hand with her memories, she'd been training to be better than she needed to be, better than the expectations. Whether it was for acceptance or not, she wasn't sure, but she had never lost a fight when it mattered.

None of her teammates had ever died on her watch.

So, upon disabling one nuisance with a hit to the gut, her stomach sank the moment she looked up to see Kakashi being knocked to the ground, the earth beneath him cracking under pressure. His body popped up before he sank back down once more. His head lolled to the side and for a second Yugito was too surprised to move.

Then she gritted her teeth.

"No, no," she muttered darkly as she watched two Kiri-nin descend upon Kakashi.

That was when she moved.

Itachi and her, they never killed on their missions. They had boasted the power between them to do that, to spare the lives that crossed their path. It wasn't always easy—some were strong enough to actually pose something of a threat, but they usually won in the end and reaped the benefits of a Bingo Book score and a nice tally of lives spared.

"Water Style: Water Prison Justu!" A woman's voice cried out and one of the rivers Kumo so proudly possessed, came around to encase Kakashi. He was slumped forward, the Kiri-nin's hand jerking his body up from the ground by the edges of his flak jacket. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Yugito looked at the others still remaining. She'd taken one down and now there was three left. One had Kakashi and the others...

She hated killing—loathed the awful feeling that poured over her, the sickening feeling in her gut that crashed into her each time she stole someone's life. It wasn't fair. She wanted to live, wanted to live so _fucking badly_ and so did others. She ended many people like that, knowing that she was the last thing for them to ever see.

Yugito had a bad feeling but she was fighting against it. Instead, she was aiming to quickly knock out her remaining opponents. It was the sort of thing she was very good at, being able to lock onto others and attack them in an entirely non-lethal way. Often time she suspected there was more skill in battles that ended without death, and was sure she could move fast enough to do it to the remaining enemies.

It didn't work out like that.

First, she'd underestimated them—should have known better with _Kakashi_ decommissioned—but she honestly hadn't had a really dicey fight in a very long time. She was unused to actually having to fight someone on par with her that _wasn't_ a friendly spar.

Then was the fact that she didn't want to kill them and they were actively trying to kill _her_.

She hesitated too long where she stood, a kunai grazing her mask just as she pulled away. Everything was a blur as she dodged and moved as quickly as she could with her muscles taut with chakra enhancements. Yugito could very well end it all with a touch of Matatabi's chakra, could slip on a cloak and be done with the threats.

But she didn't want to kill.

"I'm not a monster," she hissed the lie to herself as she flipped herself away from the danger to reassess what was going on in her head.

Her eyes glanced at Kakashi, unmoving in the water prison he'd been trapped inside of and it was then that Yugito felt something steel within her. She hated killing, hated putting her life above others and continuing to live even as her victims did not.

But this was different. Kakashi was suffocating inside of that water prison—fuck, _fuck_ —and they were standing in her way. Time was of the essence.

She had to get to him.

Saying a quick, "Fuck you," she shot forward uncaringly and sent her claws ripping into the Kiri-nin in front of her, hearing his screams echo in her skull as it rang in the air. It had been a very long time since she'd heard the sound and it hadn't changed very much. It was every bit as painful as it had been before, still bringing an ache to her alongside the feeling of knives jamming themselves into her ears.

She didn't linger.

Instead, she was already moving towards Kakashi, where he'd been inside the prison way _too long_.

Yugito simultaneously flicked a shuriken at the Kiri-nin maintaining the justu—her hearing telling her it made its mark—and dove into the water that bound Kakashi. With her cloak of chakra protecting her, she burned into the water prison with ease and reached for him, gripping his waist before pulling him up bridal-style into her arms. His eyes were fluttering by the time she got them both out of that wet predicament, his body limp against her. He coughed loudly in her arms and took in as deep a breath as he could with his mask still sticking to his face. Fighting the instinct to pull it down for him, Yugito concerned herself more with getting him out of danger, her feet already leading the both of them away.

It had all happened too quickly for Yugito to fully process it all and she paused only once in her movement. Letting Kakashi slip to the ground, she left him briefly to cut the jugular of the man she had knocked out previously. She couldn't bare to tie him up, to leave him alive long enough to question him only to end up when he ran up his use. So she ended him quickly as a mercy.

Her hands coated in blood alongside her usually pristine qipao dress, she trudged back to her fallen teammate and led him as far away from the battle scene as she dared before realizing that she had forgotten to do the most important thing.

First fucking aid.

His hitai-ate slipping off his wet hair, she clutched at it for him and listened and looked for the best cover for them. About a minute later, she found herself resting him in the coverage of an earthen hole that she covered in a quick genjutsu. He was limp where he sat as she busied herself in checking for his vitals, then stripping him of his flak jacket, which was followed by his undershirt and mesh garment. With a bitter sigh upon seeing two slash wounds on his chest, she cleaned them up the best she could, digging into her pouch for gauze that had been miraculously spared from getting soaked.

It was then that he roused himself to consciousness, both hooded eyes opening up to gaze at her.

"Your stamina is shit," she told him frankly as he watched her closely, "what the fuck _was_ that bullshit?"

"Hmm," he hummed noncommittally, gazing at her with a dark eye and a burning red one. Inwardly, Matatabi was thrumming with tension but Yugito was more concerned for him than for herself. She sighed heavily, eyed his mask and finally ripped it off with a flourish, snipping it from him with her still bloodied claws. He blinked at her lazily but otherwise had no reaction. His breathing soon turned regular though and she relaxed just a touch.

"I can't believe you," she muttered, shaking her head at him and she wrang his mask in her hands with the intent to rip it into shreds, "You're supposed to be so much cooler than this."

"Meh," he breathed uncaringly before dipping his head back and slipping into unconsciousness. His lips were a bit blue, the color in his face abysmal. She growled as she stripped off her own wet clothes before sliding in besides him and reaching around to warm him. Perhaps it had something to do with being a jinchūriki but she was never cold for long, she always exuded heat—and he needed it.

"Fuck, you're troublesome," she mumbled, keeping her eyes and ears at the ready. Then there was the waiting as he came to rest his head on her shoulder, the wet silver strands sticking to her skin as his scent masked over everything else. Yugito couldn't help it, she spared a few glances at his face and cursed him for being so pretty.

She was also a bit glad to have her curiosity sated with how much time she could spend looking at his face while he slept though she felt awfully creepy doing it too. However, there _was_ an awful lot of waiting and with his hand coming to clamp tightly on her arm, she wasn't going anywhere. She settled with eyeing him out of the corner of her eye and trying not picture in her head what was _really_ inappropriate.

Sure enough, an hour later, he was still asleep and footsteps were approaching. She tensed considerably before the familiar scent wafted by, bringing a sudden sense of calm. Yugito perked up visibly as Itachi came into view. He blinked at what he saw, taking in the scene quickly and with a frown.

"What happened?" he asked hesitantly as he eyed her close-to-naked form and Kakashi's bared chest and face. To her credit, she didn't blush or do anything of the sort. Instead she curled her lip in disgust as she jabbed her thumb in the sleeping form beside her.

"Kiri-nin appeared while we were outside the house, they attacked, we— _I_ —took them down while he got placed into a water prison," she huffed out a sigh and rolled her tense shoulders before standing up, peeling the Hatake's fingers from her wrist.

Quietly, Kakashi voiced a soft protest at the absence of her warmth but she was too agitated to care or listen. Instead, as she began to slip on her soggy and bloody qipao, she moved as far away from Kakashi as she could, still feeling guts and blood beneath her fingernails. Yugito was disgusted with herself more than anything else, knowing that she'd killed and broken a promise to herself. For him. She'd done it for him and just looking at him, with Itachi in view, she couldn't help but feel the weight of it all the more.

"Gai is on his wa—" Itachi was saying as she slipped into her clothing, but that was before being promptly cut off when a deeply guttural cry rang out.

"What has happened!?" Gai demanded to know as Tobio trailed curiously behind him, fingers still tinkering with a mound of metal in his hands. "What has happened to my eternal rival? Has he fallen ill?"

Yugito shrugged, "I guess."

If stupidity was an illness, then yes, he definitely had it.

"I was hit in the head," Kakashi mumbled with a groan, sitting up. Itachi helped him up and the silver-haired nin leaned heavily onto the fifteen year old. "Was ganged up on, couldn't see very well."

Yugito narrowed her gaze on him, noticing for the first time that his eyes were open how there looked to be hints of blood crusting at the edges of his Sharingan. Which meant he'd used it in the time it took her to get Asuka into the house, safe, and for her to return. He'd stupidly used the eye and got himself recklessly fucked up.

Pursing her lips and fuming inwardly, she tried not to visibly show her anger. Inside, she was screaming out curses she didn't use very often and she felt Matatabi retreating a bit away. Out of consideration, she attempted to calm herself but the more she thought about the situation, the more angry she felt.

Kakashi had shit stamina, he used his eye rather then find a better way at disabling the enemies and had gotten himself weakened and subsequently captured—and, and she'd _killed_ for him.

Wordlessly, she stalked away, pulling her drying hair into a ponytail and planning to take a very, very long bath.

* * *

**Four Unlikely Friends - End**


	15. Five Honest Words (& One Special Smile)

**Five Honest Words ( & One Special Smile)**

* * *

When Yugito was angry, her voice took on a slight growl to it that Kakashi couldn't help but admit was pretty fucking hot. He sighed at his thoughts but still let them cruise along innocently—or not so innocently—in his skull each time he spotted the sight of her after what he had begun to call The Incident. These thoughts of his...

It was his fault for nearly dying but mostly her fault for having taken off her dress and showing him just exactly she had going on beneath her clothes.

Yugito was attractive, putting it simply.

Her face was more than a little easy on the eyes and from what he'd seen, her body looked as she took real care of it sans a few clustered scars. Sure, her chest had still been encased with bindings and she actually wore spandex shorts beneath her dress—but more than that, she was desirable from presence alone. He'd seen her thighs, the narrowing of her waist and curve of her back, had wanted to run his finger along her spine and watch her shiver in a thoughtless haze that would keep his mind off other matters. Her mask had been torn too, giving him perfect access into seeing her flushing expression each time she looked his way—which had been flatteringly frequent. Worst of all, however, had been the fact that he'd been too weak to get as good a look as he wanted to.

His vision had been slightly blurred at the time and he'd spent a good part of his remaining energy in angling the right side of his face away from her. Not to mention the death grip he'd had on her. He still didn't know why he'd done it exactly, touching her and letting himself lean onto her shoulder. His cheek had touched her naked skin, had felt the warmth her body exuded like a burning fire at a campsite. Her scent, even with the layer of sweat and blood entering in the mix, was still that sweet strawberry that had been stuck in his senses for the better part of two days prior.

Kakashi was a fucking mess.

He'd just used a technique he hadn't even _known_ he could use, had balked at witnessing his kunai vanish in his hand, realized that he'd had the ability for a very long time—damn it, _damn it_ , not another reminder—and instead of focusing on the fact that Obito was fucking alive, he was thinking of how hot the crazy blonde was.

He was avoiding the situation, he knew, deflecting as best he could the feelings that he could just barely keep at bay. Obito was _alive_ , and something awful had happened. Yugito hadn't exactly stated it outright but Kakashi's gut was telling him that Obito wasn't the boy he used to know anymore. He was different and he was _lost_ and Kakashi had no idea what to do.

So, instead of realizing how much of a garbage heap he actually was, Kakashi thought about the better parts about the whole Mission From Hell he was currently on. Like how utterly beautiful Yugito looked when she brushed her long blonde locks behind her ear and smiled at Itachi with that expression of warm love on her face. It made him feel calmer just to see her dark eyes lighting up, the steady rhythm of her heartbeat ringing in his ears if he focused in on her.

He relaxed just a bit more around her too, different from the blatant distrust he had for her previously. It was the least he could do around the girl who had saved his life from drowning. Not exactly the most heroic way to die—not that it mattered if it was heroic or not, Kakashi planned to die in the comfort of a bed from very old age. Even if it was just him, he had thought often enough about his demise that he knew what exactly he _didn't_ want. None of his loved ones had ever died of old age.

Kakashi liked to be at least original in the way he didn't want to be copying any of them. Which ruled out being a martyr, committing suicide, and being crushed by a boulder. All of that had become apart of his resolve not to let a single one of his team members die, which by extension meant he couldn't let himself die on a mission either. It had been a promise, made to the ones he'd already lost, and made more for his selfish sake than theirs. Kakashi was tired of pain, tired of losing people.

In the water, as he struggled to stay alive, he'd thought it would be another broken promise. A friend killer once more if he ever broke another promise to Rin, but even worse if he couldn't see Obito again. Kakashi could still feel the fear in him, even as a few more days based in relative ease. It wasn't unusual for him. After a while, anxiety tended to stick to him like honey and it was always there just underneath a heavy layer of suppression.

Kakashi sighed and faked reading his book as his eye instead went towards where Yugito was laying on the floor, sketching on a paper besides Itachi. Her slender legs swayed in her air, her shoulders relaxed as she absentmindedly drew a cat. It was actually fairly cute, her drawing, but nothing in comparison to Itachi's work, who was actually drawing her as if she were posing just for him.

It was a bit surreal still—even after having days to get used to it—that Itachi could be so trusting and open to one single person. From his experience with the teenager, the Uchiha was quiet, unexpressive, and unbelievably thoughtful. Now, witnessing how he behaved alongside the kumo-nin, he could add the fact that Itachi had a surprising amount of wit hidden behind his usually blank expressions. His lips formed into a smile more often when she was around and he seemed to mostly be indulging her when he did it, listening to her excitedly chirp as they drew together.

Yugito was talking about a group of monkeys again, something about one of them trying to charm and seduce the Earth Daimyo's son out of ten million ryo. It was a ridiculous story, only highlighted by the deadpan tone she used to tell it, her voice continuing to send a thrill through him each time he heard it. It was smooth with a hint of smoke to it, like soft velvet. Her voice continued to be her best trait, he thought.

That line of thinking was only reinforced when she turned to look up at him, her eyes narrowing at him sharply. She had pretty eyes, a sharp tilt to the shape of them that made her even more cat-like in appearance. With her long hair cascading down her back, she looked even more like someone in need of a petting—okay, stop.

Kakashi shifted to get a better look at her drawing—not her ass—and was amused to see a rather gloriously dressed monkey in a Kumo styled wedding dress carrying around what looked to be a glass of champagne. She finished the sketch off with a flair, adding just a touch more hair to the animal. Looking over to what Itachi was drawing, it nearly made him burst into laughter to see a very seriously drawn image of the same monkey attempting to seduce a human man with a bag filled with coins being dragged off by similarly dressed monkeys being dragged off in the background.

"Do you have something to say?" Yugito murmured to Kakashi, her tone fixed with just a touch of a growl that sent a wave of heat through him. He blinked at her rather languidly, shifting just a bit more to give her a properly unimpressed look. She rolled her eyes and ran her tongue over the edge of her sharpened canines.

Kakashi had to wonder—was she _trying_ to seduce him?

He shook his head of the thought for what it was. Ridiculousness. Currently, she was barely holding off on berating him for his senseless actions in testing out a 'new' ability. She wasn't exactly keen on him as it was and for that matter, neither was he to her. She was the one holding onto information that could possibly ruin the entire world as he knew it.

So she wasn't exactly an ally. He shouldn't trust her.

Oddly enough, he did. Most likely because Itachi had taken such a strong liking to her and the Uchiha wasn't an idiot. He would _have_ to know something was up, that she wasn't telling them everything. But despite all of that, he trusted her. So Kakashi couldn't help but have a smidge of faith in her too.

So did he have something to say? Kakashi lifted a brow at her.

"Isn't it something that you have to say instead?" he asked in return, feeling just a bit smug when her cheeks brightened considerably. She scowled at him and looked away. Itachi gave him a look at that, expression both unamused and curious at the same time. His eyes flitted towards Yugito before they went back to Kakashi.

"What are you talking about?" the raven-haired boy asked, drawing out a soft chuckle from Kakashi.

"Nothing because we aren't talking at all," he muttered, restraining the urge to childishly and accusingly glare at Yugito. She shrugged, lifting up her shoulders emphatically.

"I don't want to talk to you," she said stubbornly, "I already told you that."

Kakashi couldn't resist. He moved forward, settling onto the floor, lying on his belly as he came to be right beside her. When she looked over at him incredulously, he merely batted his eye at her pitifully, "Does Yugi-chan hate me now?"

"Yugi-chan thinks you should shut the fuck up," she said sweetly and with a saccharine smile.

"Then, will Yugi-chan hurt me if I continue to talk?" he asked playfully, his own voice taking on a hint of a rasp, his pitch lowering without him even meaning to. Inwardly he was laughing at it all, at the ridiculousness of what he was saying, at the way she was glaring at him so forcefully, and the irony he was begging for attention when he so rarely gave it to other people.

Yugito smacked her feet against his none too gently.

He quirked a brow at her right before returning the gesture with just as much effort. He was even beginning to feel a bit sore when she growled and kicked at him again. Without even a word, it devolved quickly after that into a foot battle, both of them angling to face each other as they tried to one of the other. It was as stupid as it sounded and Kakashi wasn't particularly proud of himself the moment she got a little too close to his balls with a misplaced kick.

In response, he wrapped his thigh around her leg and dragged her closer to him. It wasn't until he was seeing her face _right there_ that he realized what he had done. Face flaming and particularly thankful for the umpteenth time that he had his masked placed firmly over his face. He tried to play it off cool, to not show exactly how seeing her so up close made him physically feel, and he was doing it like an expert like himself would. Perfectly. He lifted his brow at her and watched with a hint of amusement as her own face reddened.

Then there was an odd silence in the room.

Realizing belatedly that Itachi was watching and that there was a kid in the room, he released her and rolled away. At the same time he snatched up his book and flipped it open to a page and—damn it all! It was a particularly racy scene with a flexible blonde woman and honestly, fuck his life. He flushed darkly, could feel the heat of his face only sustained longer by the encasing that covered his face and was beginning to feel a little less grateful.

Whatever. He could ignore her now with the book in hand.

Except he couldn't.

What did she _know_? What wasn't she telling them? Couldn't she just spit it the fuck out and be _done_ with her slow torture of him?

He couldn't help it—he peeked over the edge of his book and looked at her, watching her angrily color her drawing with a vehemence that hedged on tearing the paper to bits. He edged away from her warily and looked instead towards Itachi, who was watching him with a thoughtful look on his face.

Then he scowled at Kakashi.

_Fuck._

* * *

Kakashi just couldn't make things easy, could he? He just _had_ to be an asshole.

Ignoring him wasn't working—obviously—so instead, she sought him out as soon as Gai and Itachi took over for night time watch. Kakashi waltzed out the room nonchalantly and, barely able to stop herself from yelling at him, she followed after him.

He glanced back at her as they neared his room's door, his brow lifting as he realized that she wasn't leaving his side. She settled a hand to her hip and glared at him.

"We should talk," she muttered out, wondering just what about him agitated her so much. Perhaps his idiocy but most definitely that look of cool satisfaction in his eye. He held up his hands, bringing a hand to his mouth in a classic show of surprise.

"Maa, maa, you want to talk now? But it's bedtime now!"

She rolled her eyes at him, "Fuck you then." Yugito spun on her heel and was dead set on walking away when his arm came around to snap her up. She spun instead to face him, left a little bit stunned the moment he placed his palm in hers and twirled her around before dipping her closer to the ground. His eye was smiling at her and she was made more confused by the sudden feeling of anticipation that filled her, his hand a comforting weight on her lower back.

"I don't sleep at night anyway," he murmured close to her ear, sending a shiver down her spine as his low tone sent an unexpected thrill through her. He looked at her seriously then and pulled her closer, raising her out of the dip and instead switching to hold her in his arms. Then, before she could say a word, he righted her and let go.

Yugito had no idea what to say, or do.

Her face did though, which was really just to make her miserable as it heated up to a dangerous level. It only made it more and more obvious to her that she was, in fact, a virgin. She felt a bit embarrassed too at her obvious ineptitude at what suddenly become clear to her as flirting. Kakashi had been doing it all day, lining his words in that playful tone of his while at the same time pestering her for the truth that she refused to part with.

It was a confusing mix and she was honestly unsure whether it was a tactic he was using on her or if he was actually interested...

Nope. _He_ could not be interested in her. Men like him rarely had the time for her, always seeking satisfaction through a job well done more than a relationship. Well, for that matter, Yugito just didn't have the best luck with men in general. She'd die a virgin as it was, already well on her way to remaining celibate through her entire life.

The irony was that she wanted kids.

Yugito shook her head to clear her thoughts and regarded Kakashi as seriously as she could.

"I, uh," she blinked as she met his heavy hooded gaze and realized he was looking at her in a rather peculiar way. His eye was narrowed in on something, on her—she blinked again—lips. She couldn't help the instinctive reaction to bite them, shifting on her feet awkwardly as she wondered if she should run away from what was turning into a really awkwardly heated moment.

How unfair that she couldn't even see _his_ face!

Yugito paused.

Her own gaze narrowed in on his mask and the fact that she had already seen his face before. Her fingers twitching, she couldn't even attempt to stop them as they took on a mind of their own in tearing it down. His face was only visible for a second when their lips made contact. She didn't know who started it, who leaned in first, but in a blink of an eye she was locking lips for the first time since she was fifteen and Tamaki wanted to see what it was like with a girl.

Sad to think it had been so long ago and just a bit embarrassing and holy crap was she bad at kissing?

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck_ , she thought in quick succession as she thought whether it was too late to pull away and take everything back completely.

It was, Kakashi's tongue was already licking the top of her lip and she was soon left gasping and sighing into him. She shuddered when his hand came to rest as the small of her back, running his fingers through her long hair to get there. The moment her mouth widened, Kakashi seemed to take that as a cue and before she could properly analyze whether she was bad at kissing, she was simply _doing_ it.

It seemed like some people just _understood_ kissing, and Kakashi was one of them. She followed his lead and was left stunned at how weirdly good it felt. Her experience with Tamaki was made to look like mere child's play in comparison. He groaned and it reverberated through her, making her moan in response, wondering how exactly it could feel so, so _good_ to kiss.

She needed to breathe, god she needed to _breathe_.

Yugito didn't want to but she pulled away more out of necessity than desire to do so, left feeling oddly more awake from what had just happened. She felt more alive, ready to take on the world based on the pure feeling of euphoria taking its hold on her. From just kissing. Fuck, she was such a _dork_.

Kakashi chuckled as he watched her catch her breath and wondered absentmindedly how it could have happened. Very few things made her feel so breathless.

"That was a first for me," she mumbled without thinking, just trying to say something to fill the silence.

"A first?" he echoed, lifting a brow at her and she reddened.

"I've kissed before but it was never anything like..." she trailed off, refusing to meet his gaze as she dipped her head into his collar, fingers curling into his flak jacket. Then, in a soft whisper, she continued, "never like that."

"Oh," he exhaled, then, very quietly, "Are you a virgin then?"

Just as quietly, she whispered with a nod, "Yes."

"Oh," he breathed out again and it was then that logic caught up with her.

Moving away from him like a cat spooked by fire, Yugito put a good distance between them, face flaming as she looked anywhere but him. Biting her already rubbed raw lips, she awkwardly shifted on her feet as she tried to scramble for what to say.

"I—" she started, just as he did.

"You go first," he mumbled, his own cheeks a surprising pink. For a second, she was thinking about kissing him again but killed the thought when she remembered that she was actually angry at him. Or supposed to be.

"What were you _thinking_?" Yugito asked, crossing her arms as she looked at him.

"In kissing you?" he looked at her critically, "The same thing you probably were."

Her flush deepened but she held onto her newly revived anger and shook her head firmly, "No, I'm talking about why you ended up in that water prison."

"I was thinking that I needed to fulfill my S-rank near death experience quota."

Her glare turned fiercer, "You used the Mangekyō, didn't you? Kamui."

He shrugged and with just as much humor as he said his last statement, "Just checking if it was there, is all."

"And?" she looked at him incredulously, bugged that he was being so flippant about _nearly getting himself killed_. What would be the point in keeping so much a secret if he just got himself killed before everything could even really happen?

"It was there," he said with a self-assured nod.

"That's not what I meant," she grumbled out.

Then there was silence.

It was just as painful as it was awkward and she very nearly scrambled for some excuse to leave him and head off to her room to sleep.

"Why are you hiding things?" Kakashi suddenly asked, canceling out that half-baked plan in her head. She looked at him and the mood was no longer humorous in the slightest. His gaze was on her, heavy and searching and she had to wonder if he would actually find anything in her. Absentmindedly, she felt her lips part but turned quiet when she had no idea what to say.

Then, so softly she had to wonder if he could actually hear her, "I'm scared."

"Why?" he asked, his voice just as low. She stepped closer to him and met his gaze.

"There's a war to come but..." she trailed off, swallowing, "but it will unite everyone. Kumo, Kiri, Konoha, Suna, Iwa—all of them will be united as one on the battlefield to fight a man who should have died the first time around and a boy whose world was made meaningless by the death of a fifteen year old girl. If I tell you," she paused, breathing deeply before continuing, "it could change everything."

"The boy. It's Obito, isn't it?" Kakashi asked, tone dead of emotion and somehow it hurt Yugito to hear it.

She openly winced but said nothing.

She didn't need to.

" _Fuck_ ," Kakashi cursed, shaking his head before smacking his open palm against the wall. He cursed again, much more vehemently the second time around before slamming his back against the door of his room and sliding to the ground. He covered his face in his hands and shook his head. The moment he looked up from his splayed open hands, there were tears in his eyes. Tears of desperation.

"Kakashi—"

"It's all my fault, isn't it?" he asked, his tone of voice still dead even as his eye seemed to show _too much_ _pain_. Yugito was wordless as she knelt in front of him. She didn't know what to do and let her body take over as she leaned closer to him. Slowly, she placed her forehead against his, her skin touching cool metal.

"Should we change everything?" she asked softly, meeting his gaze as she admitted to him what she had never admitted before, "I'll die if I don't."

"Can we?" he whispered back, looking desperate as he asked, "But can I even fix things with him?"

"I don't know," she admitted honestly, unable to lie while looking straight into his eye. Yugito couldn't help herself, she elaborated, "He saw you kill her. Rin. He doesn't know she jumped in the way. Or at least, I don't think he does. In the past, when it happened, he was attempting to rejoin the both of you. He was led there by this plant guy, uh, I don't remember his name. But that plant guy helped set all of it up so that Madara could make Obito into a pawn. He had Rin captured by Kiri and they made her into Isobu's carrier and well, one thing led to the next and now—"

"This is so _fucked_ ," Kakashi muttered, interrupting her. He looked visibly stressed, his face pulled back into a grimace as he met her gaze full on, "And you knew this whole time? Even when all of it happened?"

She blinked at him, opening her mouth only to weakly close it as she realized where he was getting at.

In a whisper, she could only manage out, "I-I couldn't do anything even if I wanted to."

"Did you?" he asked softly and she swallowed back the sudden tears that attempted to rise to her eyes.

 _I did, I did, I did_ , she thought but couldn't say. Yugito hated recalling the past for that very reason. Knowing so much of the world had been much more than a curse than a gift, especially when she could do nothing to stop it from happening. Depression had followed her like a cloud, constantly hanging around her as it made her life at that point blurry in thought. She couldn't remember much, having suppressed most of it, save for her resolve that had come out of an actual attempt at suicide that she didn't let herself think about.

"I couldn't do anything," she repeated, attempting to pull away from Kakashi. He caught her at the wrist, pulling her closer to him, practically forcing her to meet his gaze.

He looked to be searching for something, reading her eyes. He was silent for a second. Then he sighed and oddly enough, there was a bit of a sardonic smile making its way onto his face.

"I know," he murmured, taking a deep breath and relaxing his posture. His legs opened up to the point that she fell onto him, waist caught between his knees. He smirked at her, confusing her much more than anything else that had just previously happened.

Was it normal for people to go back and forth like this?

"You're playing mind games with me," she accused him, fighting against the instinct to relax on him and let herself bask in his warmth. Save for Itachi, she had never been so close to another person. Scratch that, even accounting for the snuggling she did with Itachi when she was feeling particularly loving, she'd never been so close.

Kakashi rested his thumb beneath her chin, tilting her head up. With his forefinger he caressed her lips in a second of silence before leaning in and slowly, languidly kissing her. He chuckled against her and the vibrations of it made her feel an odd sort of buzzing along her back and arms.

"Then I think we're even," he murmured and the curious side of Yugito, the one to get her into trouble if she let it take over her self control, wanted to push on ahead. She wanted to deepen the kiss, was curious to see how he's react, wondering what exactly he'd do if she...

Yugito didn't stop herself—she leaned in, wrapped her arms around his torso and kissed along his jaw before dipping lower and traveling to his neck. He gave a low groan as she peeled away the high collar of his shirt, lips going first to his adam's apple before searching for the best reaction out of him.

She'd never done anything like it before and was wondering if she was doing it wrong when Kakashi released a shuddered out moan, his arms going around her back and Yugito felt his warmth all around her and let his scent fill her senses. Even the beat of his heart was comforting to her, especially with the quickened pace that matched her own.

Breathlessly, she pulled away and couldn't help but laugh. Yugito didn't know what was so funny but Kakashi seemed to feel much in the same way as he began to laugh too. Soon they devolved into fits of giggles interspersed by light kisses that only seemed to make her laugh harder.

Finally, she shifted back and felt the corners of her mouth lift, her eyes on his face as she noted the softness of his eyes. There was still that lingering sadness and confusion but more than that, there was the charming curve to his mouth, a youth in his face that she hadn't really been expecting. They both seemed to be similarly baby faced it seemed, ageless in a way.

Yugito leaned in for one last kiss before whispering to him, "I really like your smile."

Then she pulled away entirely, rose to her feet and walked off to her bedroom feeling both very, very confused and somewhat satisfied.

* * *

If she was worried about things being awkward when she saw him next, it was all for nothing. Not much had changed between them, all things considered. He still joked around with her like he had done before, skirting on the edge of being a flirt while at the same time balancing it with an edge of blunt honesty. The most that had changed in their dynamic was that she began to actually reciprocate on some of his more outlandish jokes.

Before long, as Tobio worked on his inventions and Itachi and Gai took the time to sleep, Kakashi and her were sharing war stories. They'd both grown up experiencing two wars before they could even fully develop as people. As soon as she had become effective on the field, she'd already been sent into battle to kill and massacre much in the way he had. They didn't linger on the fact that they were enemies during that time, or that the people Yugito talked about having killed was in fact people he possibly knew. It was similar in vice versa to his stories as well.

They were similar in the way that they were deflecting the pain with humor. None of it was actually funny but it was just so _nice_ to actually _laugh_ and mean it too. Especially about the things she couldn't really bring herself to make light of by herself.

Kakashi made her feel a bit happy in that sense.

This only served to further confuse her on what all of it even meant—the kiss, his joking, the somewhat flirty banter, the way he brushed his fingers through her hair so casually. Was this normal for him to do? Was he actually interested in _her_ , or was he in it more for the, uh, _sex_. She didn't care much for the answer in the way that she wouldn't mind him picking either of the options as long as he chose at all. She really just wanted the uncertainty in her to end, the feeling of having no control to go away, and to better understand what she was actually doing when she let herself wink at him like the embarrassing dork that she was. So she didn't care if he just wanted sex—it wasn't as if she were saving her first time for something special. Quite the contrary actually.

She was just more awkward than she realized in situations that led up to it that she'd always just sort of scared everyone away. Including the few women she'd gone out with on dates. So no, she didn't care which he said it was. More like, she just wanted to know what it all meant and what she should be preparing herself for.

Was it supposed to be like one of those one night stands Samui told her about? Or was it supposed to be more serious? Did he do something stupid like fall in love with her? Should she be prepared to turn him down and make things all that more awkward? Or should she just be prepared to say to heck with decency and let herself live a little before she died.

No, but really, what was going _on_ in his head?

Unfortunately, it wasn't made clear. Not even when Itachi and Gai entered into the room, carrying trays of morning snacks that Asuka had prepared for them all. Yugito would have been touched by the care had it not been for her thoughts kicking into gear upon seeing Itachi's face.

Fuck, she'd been thinking so much about Kakashi that she hadn't even stopped to think about what was _actually_ important. The future and her place in it.

She'd been stupid in revealing so much to the silver haired nin, and made more stupid in thinking that she could somehow put a stop to her death or any of the others to come. Like that, she wanted to slam her head against the wall. Yugito's problem wasn't being thoughtless, her problem was thinking _too_ much.

It was the same thing she kept going back and forth on. Matatabi had said she'd be kept safe but would she really? _Could_ she really? What about the rest of the world, or the rest of the jinchuuriki? How could she save herself and not them?

What could she even do by herself? What could she even hope to accomplish in the world that was already destined for a hard fought happy ending? Did she even have to do anything at all? Was it even her battle?

Yugito was tired of thinking—tired of going back and forth on an issue that was made more hypothetical as she let the issue wear her down. She needed to do something instead, needed to actually see if she _could_ do something.

But she didn't even know where she should start with, didn't know what options she even had to look at. Right, _she_ didn't know. Planning wasn't exactly her strong point to begin with. However, she _did_ know someone rather close by who seemed to excel at them...

Yugito nodded firmly, choice made.

Itachi would know what to do—she'd go to him.

* * *

**Five Honest Words ( & One Special Smile) - End**

* * *

 


	16. Six Things to Admit

**Six Things to Admit**

* * *

Itachi figured he had a way with kids—despite not having a way with kids.

They all seemed to beg for his attention without him wanting or needing it, whether it was his brother or the kids that used to trail after him in awe once upon a time when he went to the tea house he used to frequent. Not to mention the girls—don't even get him started on the droves of girls that used to trail him—but thankfully, Tobio was not a girl and all things considered, he was tame in his demands for attention. Demands that was a bit less like having an annoying brother and having a student instead.

Or maybe this was what it was like to make friends with a civilian?

Either way, the kid was smart and in a refreshing way, Itachi could maintain a conversation longer than general light discussions like that pertaining to the state of the weather and the topic of dinnertime. It was nice to talk with someone that wasn't someone he'd automatically associate as an acquaintance for being in his line of work. Instead, as Itachi watched from his 'perch', he was able to see the boy for who he was without the pressure of expectation to be more than a bodyguard.

It was even a bit fascinating to watch Tobio at work, to see the ideas in his head come into fruition as he drafted blueprints and set to work on making it into a reality. They'd only been there nearly a month or so but already the kid had created what Itachi could never have dreamt of. One such invention was a thing the boy said would crush fruits into a thick juice, with blades that rotated like a spiraling shuriken. What was even stranger was that it worked, blending the mix of assorted fruits that Tobio had just jammed in without much a care for being gentle.

Itachi had been hesitant to drink but after a while, it had become fun to see what other kinds of beverages that were able to come out of the creation. Asura and Yugito seemed to have the most fun with it, bringing all of them exotic drinks with mashed coconuts and kiwi all blended together.

So really, it wasn't difficult to like Tobio—in fact, as difficult as it could be to speak with him, it was easy to understand him. He _was_ just an eight year old, after all. Which was probably what was so refreshing; it was someone with their innocence still intact, someone with little to no concerns in the world and it was a bit nice to be around someone like that. Itachi could, for a bit, forget about all else.

It didn't hurt that the mission was quickly turning into even more of a vacation with how often Itachi could just laze around, sketching whatever struck him as interesting. Some were the inventions, others were Kakashi's ninken or Gai's Ningame when they came out, but mostly it was of the stories that Yugito liked to tell when she was bored.

Which was often.

But all of that changed when Yugito told him what he'd been suspecting for a while.

* * *

"You know how I know the future? Pieces of it, at least," she added nervously, speaking in a code she prayed he would remember.

Yugito had spent way too much time talking herself up to do it, to finally come clean on everything. Now he was there, in front of her, and she'd be damned if she didn't just let it all out in word vomit.

Itachi blinked but nodded all the same. She breathed a sigh of relief but it was too soon for her heart to stop pounding so fast.

"Well, I have somethings to admit that you might be interested to know about..." Yugito trailed off, picking at her cuticles with hesitation clear in her voice.

He slid an uncertain glance towards Tobio but gestured for her to continue.

Clearing her throat, she softly exhaled before mumbling, "I end up dying an untimely death and so will a lot of the other jinchūriki—and well, a _ton_ of people. See, there's going to be a fourth shinobi world war brought on by a man who wants to stick everyone into an infinite dreamland to take away the terribleness of the world. Of course, he's stopped, but not before the Ten-Tails is resurrected and also a rabbit goddess who might have wanted to eat the world like cabbage? But that might have been one of my fever dreams when I was younger..." Yugito trailed off, biting her lip as her gaze darted everywhere but at Itachi.

When silence pervade, however, she couldn't help herself—she looked.

"So...you're in danger," he summarized, a strange expression crossing his face that was gone too fast for her to properly read into it. Instead, he looked rather blankly back at her.

"Yeah..." Yugito trailed off and fidgeted where she stood, wondering what she could do to keep her heart from beating out of her chest from the sudden burst of anxiety that shot through her.

"You should have told me all of this sooner," Itachi said quietly as he watched her lean back against the wall in an attempt to calm herself. Tobio was blinking at her, intrigued for the first time since she'd arrived into his life and she still wasn't sure if that was a good thing. She couldn't tell how much he could actually make sense of what she had just said. She'd spoken primarily in code, one that was the creation of a bored weekend and a drunk Itachi who had been insistent on them developing a language of their own.

"Yeah," she agreed just as quietly, sighing out softly.

"And you've told Kakashi about it?" he asked and Yugito wobbled her hand in the air.

"Not all of it, not any of the details but basic overview, I think," she shifted and gave a shrug, "It's like I give him an inch and he makes a mile out of it. I don't think I even need to tell him all of the details up front, he could just analyze and draw his own conclusions from there."

"Then we should involve him in on this completely," Itachi nodded to himself, thinking for a moment before he blinked. He refocused on her and narrowed his eyes at her, "You and him..."

She reddened, "What about him and me?"

Itachi looked at her for a moment, quiet as he gave her what he probably intended to be a look. Pointedly, she didn't acknowledge it and he eventually gave way with a sigh. With a shake to his head, she noted the slight smile on his face as he told her, "It's your business."

Yugito pursed her lips for a moment before looking away from him entirely and pacing just a bit away from him. Then, suddenly struck with a thought, she spun to face him, "What if we told Gai-san too? I mean, if we're going to making any plans, the more people in the know would be better, right?"

Itachi squinted at her, "Wouldn't we benefit from less people? For the sake of our plan's integrity?"

Yugito took the chance to express her uncertainty in a shrug, "But this is Gai-san we're talking about. I doubt he would ruin a good plan if it works in the advantage of Konoha."

"That's true," Itachi admitted, quickly rubbing at his face with a shake of his head before he blinking at her expectantly, "What do we even want to get out of this? You said before that certain things have to happen for everyone to be united in the after effects."

"Yes," Yugito nodded, then gave a defeated sigh, "that's the problem and why I'm even telling you all of this. I don't completely care to change everything but I know that I will need your help on enacting controlled changes so that I don't completely fuck up a good thing. More than that though, this concerns your family. Quite heavily in fact." She sighed, unable to stop herself from slumping just a bit as she admitted to him what she had been avoiding, "It might be a bad thing that I stopped you from killing everyone. The fact that the Uchiha clan is still alive and, assuming things haven't changed too much and your family doesn't want to listen to the information we've provided with Sasuke, then we could potentially be faced with some major crises. Realistically, I don't know how much you being out of Akatsuki affects everything."

"Well," Itachi began, a small tiny frown on his face as he regarded her calmly, "knowing exactly what caused the circumstances, we just need to replicate everything that has been lost, shouldn't we?"

"Right," Yugito said, though she wasn't too sure that would even be possible.

"Whatever you guys are talking about," Tobio suddenly interjected, making Yugito slide an uncertain glance his way, "I want in."

Itachi raised a brow, "I think you'd find it boring."

Tobio released a huffy sigh, standing to his full sight and placing a hand to his hip much in the fashion of his mother, "Don't tell me what I find boring, Crow!"

The Uchiha shrugged, "Well, if you insist, Yugito and I are writing a book and we're trying to figure out the small details."

The kid frowned, looking a touch confused, "Why are you writing a book? You guys are already ninja!"

"Then imagine all of the cool stories we could write about," Yugito piped up cheerfully and with a grin that she couldn't contain. It was in part that she was feeling a little bit more optimistic for having Itachi on her side and in feeling more secure for it too.

She was not as lonely as she was before. She had someone she could tell the truth to.

"I guess," Tobio seemed to pout just a bit, before he turned and looked at Itachi accusingly, "But what kind of stories? Kinds that I could read or ones that Mama tells me that I have to be older for?"

Itachi and her exchanged a glance before she shrugged.

"Shouldn't be like that. Do you maybe want to help us plan the story?" Inwardly, she worried she was being stupid in thinking she could trust an eight year old with what could potentially be illegal activity. Then she looked at the blueprints on his table and couldn't deny the type of genius he was, someone with a brain that solely looked for ways to make ideas work. As detrimental as he could be, if they were careful...

"I want a cut from book sales," Tobio said after blinking up at her slowly, "but sure."

Yugito shrugged, "Fine."

* * *

Itachi wasn't prepared for the feeling of worry that struck him as soon as Yugito informed him about her future. He knew he could replicate her feelings; to live with the knowledge of when one might die seemed abstract in nature and though he talked abstract thought regularly, it was one of those situations that you couldn't plan how to react to.

It made much more sense to him now, her obvious fascination with life and death. The no-kill streak, the desperation to continue living that he had seen so often in her, the almost maddening fear that even bringing up the concept of death brought to her...

She had been living with it, living with the knowledge of when she would die. Should she try to put a stop to it? Would fate find a way instead? Could she even stop it? Was she even capable of changing anything? The last question was easy to answer but the others were not so much.

Cause and effect; the _why_ something even happens and the _what_ happens in its wake.

Why would Yugito die? For the furthering of Akatsuki's goals. What would happen afterwards? The goals would be met. But if she never died, what would be the effects of that? How could it even be measured, the full weight of actions when there was so little to compare it to? She may know of a future, true, but she didn't know all of them and Itachi currently knew very little of it.

It was for these thoughts that it evidently became clearer that knowing the future was much more of an inhibitor, something that could easily become an obsession to avoid events that may or may not find away to happen. So should they do it? Avoid futures that were possibly already irrevocably changed? Itachi didn't even want to get into the morals of the issue as it only seemed to further complicate things rather than actually do any good in offering answers.

Itachi liked to think about it, liked to muse over his thoughts on the subject and look for books with perhaps even deeper thought, but he couldn't get too comfortable with actually being in a situation where he was attempting to prevent something.

He'd grown up being unable to stop many things; how could he even think this time would be any better? For the first time in a very long time, he was not confident in himself. It needed to happen though, as it was clearly being evidenced to him. They needed to be prepared for it—the future appeared to be rife with continued devastation and they were quite possibly the only people capable of stopping the worst of it.

Still, it was very strange to believe in her visions of the future but he couldn't doubt her on it, even as he failed to grasp what it must have been like for her. Knowing when she would die...knowing so much of the world and yet being unable to stop any of it, what kind of torture it must have put on her. Especially someone like her, someone so altruistic and active in helping others.

Itachi could say many things about Yugito but above all, her kindness was the trait that had always stood out to him most.

He knew of no one else but her who would visit the hospital every day, even on her 'vacation' days, only to visit as many names as she was able to recognize, buying up gifts in the shop to give the ones recovering. Not only that, Itachi had seen with his own eyes moments where she would remain at a comrade's side for as long as it took for them to pass. She didn't speak about times like those, didn't linger on them, but every time someone she knew was about to die and they were all alone to face death, she would sing to them in that velvet voice of hers.

Itachi saw pain in her that he rarely saw in many, pain that was not only a reflection of her own, but others as well. Empathy, her strongest trait, and the very one that seemed to torment her the most as well.

She was tight lipped on the things that hurt her most, silent in her own struggles and unwilling to speak to others on matters that concerned her emotions and state of being. A brave, tough face with no weaknesses to show until it was the night of a full moon. Interesting how that was, how a full moon was about the only way to see what was underneath her many facades. Simply, it was her watching the sky, seeing her shaking shoulders in contrast to the stillness of the mountains in the foreground, that led Itachi to know that there was something more.

He knew, even after all the time they'd been living together, that he didn't see or know all of her. There was something there still, deeply hidden, along with wounds that she had not yet healed from. He still wasn't sure what to do or say about it, was unsure in how he could be there for her like she had been there for him. He'd never been in a situation like it, had never been under the pressure to figure out a way to make someone else happy. At this point, it wasn't even about repaying the debt, it was about finding a way to show Yugito that he was there for her, in the little bit that he could be there for her at all.

Itachi worried he wasn't enough. He was never good with people, never good at forming bonds and connections that weren't already made of blood and practically handed to him. Shisui was still the closest to an example of him actually going out of his way to be a friend, but it wasn't like Shisui ever dealt with knowledge of the future and bearing the price of that on his shoulders. So he was clueless on what to do to make Yugito genuinely smile, to make her feel less afraid.

Was there even anything he could actually do?

He would be there for her on the meeting but...

Itachi could not claim to say he was excited for it and if given the choice, he would rather be back at the apartment reading a book. He didn't want to be anywhere near...whatever Kakashi and Yugito were becoming, or the hyperactive Gai who never seemed to leave him alone. Tobio was fine, he supposed, if a bit bratty—but that only served to remind him of a specific boy whose name he tried not to think too hard on.

Itachi grumbled to himself softly, turning over in his bed and trying not to think too hard on everything like he was prone to doing.

Certainly, he wasn't concerned with Yugito or her suddenly active love life. Itachi winced—it was hard even to consider it a love life at all. He was far too used to the idea of her being on her own and though he supported anything that made her happy, he just wasn't convinced Kakashi was the answer...

Okay, he tried telling himself he didn't care but that wasn't the truth at all.

Itachi couldn't help it—as much as he respected Kakashi in a working environment, he wasn't entirely too convinced about his motives when in connection to Yugito. Sure, they had been friendly before and Yugito had proved all too well her acceptance of other shinobi nations but...

Kakashi wasn't like her at all. He was still a Konoha-nin at heart, loyal to the point of death and if anyone had probable cause to maintain convictions against foreign shinobi, it would be him. Itachi had to give credit where it was due and the silver-haired ninja knew better the insides of Konoha than pretty much anyone sans the Sandaime and the Sannin. A man like that wouldn't typically cozy up with a Kumo-nin with questionable motives and perhaps a too honest approach to things.

But this wasn't the most typical circumstance. They were not enemies, regardless of where Yugito had been born. In fact, looking in the perspective of a Konoha-nin and if one didn't count Itachi's official Kumo-nin status, she was the only true foreign ninja. Yet, of them, she was the most trusting.

Not for the first time, Itachi was his good fortune in meeting her—and his promise to keep her safe.

He didn't dislike Kakashi, true, and he had no real reason to distrust him beyond keeping wary. But something made him feel uneasy, a sense of worry that hung over his shoulders that he had only really experienced with Sasuke. Concern that she might be hurt, fear that he'd see her cry, anger at the thought of no one paying for her suffering...

Perhaps it came from Kakashi's shady history with women; mere rumors, to be clear, but attached to his name nonetheless was the image of a heartbreaker. Conceptually, Itachi couldn't be bothered to care about these things but in actuality?

He was quite annoyed.

"No."

Shifting on his bed, watching the bits and pieces of the sun going down through the blinds, he knew he was only wasting time. He was thinking of the things that didn't hurt but he needed to face it.

Itachi missed them.

He had thought he was done with the feeling, past living in the past.

He wasn't.

Itachi still dreamed of the people he killed but it continued to be more of a promise each time he saw their faces, a deeply felt apology for his actions against them and a promise to be better and to _do_ better by the clan that he had forsaken.

Most of all, he dreamed of her. Of Izumi and the life he'd given her in the form of illusions, unrealistic in the way that the dango they shared had never tasted as sweet as in real life. Perhaps it had been because of Yugito and Kakashi, watching her look at him and the expression in her eyes slowly change in the way Izumi's had done long ago.

In many ways, Itachi felt like trash—and alone.

Maybe he had relied on Yugito's constant attention too much, maybe it was because he had thought things would be smooth in his path to repaying the people he had wronged...

Either way, Itachi was having a harder time lately staying asleep. He would wake up too early, would feel that strange pain in his chest and he would reflect on his childhood up until the sun rose up or down in the sky and he would join Yugito for breakfast.

He couldn't lie to himself anymore.

Itachi missed his family more and more as time went on.

He ached in ways he never expected sometimes, daydreamed of times he had once thought forgotten and of faces he longed to touch with his hands, of fingers to connect and spread against his own. He wanted to see them again, more than anything, to see even the grouchy face of his father frowning down at him expectantly. He missed his mother too, her sweet smile after he complimented her cooking or, better yet, to hear her laughter in the vibrating in the air. He wanted, more and more, to feel something as simple as a light pinch to his cheek, teasing him—like she used to do when he was little and Sasuke hadn't been born yet.

Sasuke.

Itachi missed him the most.

Unlike for the others, he would quite literally stay up in bed just wondering what it was that his brother was doing. Was he getting his homework done on time? Was he behaving properly for their parents? Was he making friends at school? Was he getting better with bukijustu without Itachi there to coach his aim? Was he even fine on his own? Was he...was he happy?

Itachi didn't know the answers to any of his questions and it was pointless to ask them. He'd already said goodbye to Sasuke, and along with his letter, he'd said goodbye to any memories he could have made with his growing little brother. There was no way to help him, after all, no way for them to meet without it raising alarms and disrupting what little peace that they had between the villages.

Even now, Itachi could hear the voice of that man, accusing him of attempting to launch them all into war again. Inabi Uchiha, his name was, the same man who had once questioned him in the investigation into Shisui's death. Even then he had been hateful, and Itachi should have been prepared for it—he should have _known_ what it would be like to meet an Uchiha again after all that time had passed. But he hadn't been and he'd felt himself breaking apart.

He had been unable to focus on much else than red eyes that he eventually could only see when his eyes were closed. In response, he kept them as wide open as he possibly could but even that didn't help as he soon lost control over what even made him valuable in Kumo, his eyes. It had been strange to flash in and out, to be truly unable to stop himself even if he wanted to.

Itachi had been much more distracted in relearning how to breathe, in how to remain conscious long enough to escape the man that reminded him of _so much pain_. In that moment, of trying to catch his breath and of trying to stay sane, all he had been able to think of had been Izumi and the waste of her death, how meaningless it had become—how he'd killed the one he had believed to be his future but had been unable to end the past, to kill the people who had raised him into the world. Everything had been cut short and _meaningless_. Dead for no reason other than an order that eventually turned out to be subterfuge.

The regret had been too much for him to handle, too much to withstand on his own as he struggled to emerge from the deep lake he had somehow found himself in. Out of breath and struggling to make the distance to the surface, there had been only one thing to stop him from the murderous rampage he had been sure he was about to go on; Yugito.

It was her who helped him when he needed someone most and her who promised him everything she couldn't have. It was also where he made his vow, a promise he refused to break for anything. He was going to do better, to not only wish for something more in his life, but to earn and _deserve it_.

He promised to start with her—and of course that meant he would never let her die while he was still alive to stop an early death for her.

Unfortunately, that was right around when that cough of his began.

* * *

Kakashi would commend himself for keeping it together as well as he was, in terms of him not completely breaking down from the pure shitshow his life had returned to.

Finding out that someone who had made such a huge impact on him was still alive? Hard. But finding out that he was perhaps the sole reason why the most important person ever to be in Kakashi's life died? Unimaginable—and perhaps that was the crux of the situation. Unimaginable because Kakashi wasn't exactly letting himself feel whatever it was he was supposed to feel at the news.

Because he had disconnected. From himself, from the world, and from harsh reality.

He was having a great time actually—Yugito turned out to be a great distraction in the way that she never quite stopped moving. Not even when sitting down to relax, as there was always something she was fidgeting with, keeping herself busy. Knitting seemed to be her favorite past time, which sounded boring, right up until she actually got to working on designs he never would have thought possible.

They had a lot of free time incidentally—Tobio never left his room most days as it was.

Kakashi was thinking about asking for lessons actually, if only to fill the hours he couldn't fill up with training. Especially on how she managed to truly capture the spike of Urushi's scruff on a photo realistic image of Kakashi's ninken all together. Funny how she got the inspiration for that actually. It had been a surprise for them all when the ninken, on Kakashi's customary introduction for the purposes of teamwork, took to Yugito like she was a long lost friend rather than the Kumo-nin that she was. Kakashi had expected a lot of things, but certainly not that.

Either way, he was practically living it up avoiding topics that he felt he could only unravel in the privacy of his home in Konoha. There would be no returning to that ugly scene he'd shown Yugito previously. No smacking walls and crying over the injustices of the world—he could not be so childish now that he was getting to be so old. Think of what Minato would say?

Or his dad...

So repressing pain with the visage of a beautiful girl with an unexpected talent? Not an unpleasant thing at all.

That is until she changed her mind on keeping him in the dark.

Then she decided that he was suddenly a viable mind to approach on planning details for a future that could not kill him fast enough.

"So we'll be grouping together tonight while Tobio is asleep and I was wondering if you could bring Gai-san with you?" Yugito asked him, her voice oddly cute in the way she was speaking. Light and just all around pleasant to listen to.

What was she saying again and why?

Ah, right. Crap.

"What are you making now?" he asked instead, confused on the direction she was taking with the small balled shape in her hands. She looked up as her fingers continued to work, clicking and clacking as they went without even a pause in motion. It was almost a bit eerie if he knew that he could perhaps do it just as well as her. Multitasking seemed to be a strong point for both of them in their skillset.

"Puppets," she answered with a smile before returning her eyes to her work, "for the meeting. I wanted to make it fun for us."

Kakashi couldn't resist lifting up a brow at her, at a complete loss for words.

Looking up to meet his eye, she blinked at his expression before her face pulled into a scowl. Setting aside her for just a moment, she crossed her arms over her stomach and stretched out her long, bared legs.

"Do you have something to say about that? Think it's stupid or something?" Yugito bit out, her sharp canines looking all the sharper as she spoke with that growl of hers.

Kakashi resisted the urge to shiver but still felt very clearly the hairs on his arm raise in response to her. He blinked lazily up at her instead of saying anything, wondering just how far she intended to go with her annoyance—it was the sort of curiosity that could kill cats.

The longer he stared at her, the longer they remained in silence.

Just slightly, her lips twitched, her scowl looking all the more softer as the seconds passed between them. Just as slowly, she blinked and in that second, her cheeks suddenly became colored in ways that looked as if someone had run a dye over them. A small part of him wanted to touch her again, to pass a finger over the soft skin on her face and discover more and more about what sort of reactions she had in her.

The bigger part of him knew that it was a line he could not cross.

He'd made the mistake before but he would learn from it. Flirting and jokes were one thing, but actually instigating something physical with her? It was just the sort of complication that he was not interested in.

A kumo-nin, a girl who looked on the brink of a break down herself, someone who seemed much more interesting and kinder than him...

He was having fun with her but it was only because, to him, this time spent with her would be brief. A glimpse in his life, moments that he may or may not recall on the day of his death. A smile that could warm ice in seconds, the hands that had gripped onto his flak jacket, eyes that shifted from shyness to excitement, that voice of hers releasing a soft pant, a gasp for breath. Those were the things that he would leave in the past.

Of course, some of that was much harder done than said.

"Maa, Yugito-chan," he forced himself to say, inwardly wincing at higher than intended tone he was forced to use.

"Hmm?" She was the one to raise a brow at him, her dark eyes beginning to glint with that sense of humor and energy he was beginning to associate with her. As if to make matters worse, she stretched out her leg just far enough to nudge his thigh.

Very cruel girl, wasn't she?

He snagged her by the ankle, unable to stop himself from chuckling at the sound of her yelping. Ruthlessly, he yanked her off of her chair, making her topple to the floor with a soft grunt of pain. It was quickly followed by the sounds of her laughter filling the air.

"You're such a bastard!" she cried out, wiping a tear from her eye as she continued to laugh.

Kakashi shook his head and was moving off of instinct alone as he continued to pull her closer to him, reaching up higher on her leg the more he inched her towards him. Hand cupping her inner thigh, it was only when she was face to face with him that he realized what he had actually done in the haze of her warm laughter.

Yugito was still chuckling, hand cupping over her mouth in what looked like an attempt to stop herself. Almost as if entranced, he brought his hand up to hers and pulled it away from her face. Eyes widening and looking visibly surprised, her cheeks turned even redder, somehow looking all the more lovely. She opened her mouth, as if to speak, but said nothing.

 _Don't do this_ , he told himself.

He wasn't really listening.

"Puppets, hm?" he breathed out as casually as he could, letting his hand remain with hers. Eyes still on her, he linked their lingers together and unknowingly squeezed her thigh. "It suits you."

Yelping, Yugito jumped just as bit before looking down at her hands and his.

"Kakashi..." she trailed off, a shake to her voice clearly evident before she swallowed, attempting to meet his gaze but failing as she squirmed under his touch, "are you playing with me?"

"I wonder..."

"Why is it so hot, Kakashi?" she asked, sounding desperate to understand, coming in to lean her forehead on his shoulder, her free hand coming to grasp tightly onto the edges of his sleeve.

"It is the summertime," he informed her with clear humor in his tone. It was a mask, a lie.

 _Don't be an idiot_.

"You're not even doing anything and yet why am I like this?" she asked and he couldn't stop himself from swallowing just to clear his thoughts and throat.

 _She really is a virgin_. Which was just as surprising to think about as it had been the first time.

"I could be asking you the same thing," he told her thoughtlessly.

_She's a kumo-nin._

Yugito hummed something that he couldn't even begin to understand. Then, slowly, she reached a hand up to pull down his mask. He met her gaze, felt the heat of her body next to his, felt the pressure of her existence and heard the sound of her breathing. He should stop her, he should move. He should let go.

But the worst thing about being alone for so long?

It was heaven to touch someone.

Yugito kissed him hesitantly and with the skill of someone new to it. Along with it was the sound of wind through trees coming from the open window next to them. The heat from the fading sun lingered over his back but it was nothing in comparison to how she felt to touch. There it was too, the scent of strawberries filling the air...

In his hand, hers were shaking just a bit.

Kakashi shouldn't have—but he deepened the kiss.

* * *

"The puppets are nice," Itachi commented and though it probably shouldn't have, it brought a blush to her face that she tried hard to hide in her hair. It wasn't working very well. His eyes narrowed at her instantly and she swallowed.

"Ahh, thank you," Yugito breathed out and adjusted the hair on one of the dolls she had prepared for the occasion as she had waited for night to fall and for Tobio to be asleep. Thankfully, Kakashi was still not in sight, checking in on the little guy before joining them.

Gai, already impatient by that point to know the reason they were meeting so secretly, faced her with his brows raised and his hands cupped to his knees. They were all sitting on the floor, a large map in front of them with the pack of puppets laying about in wait to be directed. Noticing all of this, Gai did not look upset.

"Are we going to play a youthful game?" he asked excitedly, his eyes darting towards Itachi.

She couldn't help but exchange looks with the now bored looking Uchiha.

"Kind of," she admitted softly, having no other way to explain it to him. She still felt that unease in telling any one the full truth after years of hiding it. Now she'd told _two_ people, Gai soon to be her third. It was almost a bit exhilarating, a feeling she had not been expecting.

Nevertheless, she picked up the doll intended to look like herself and gave a small wave to the Konoha-nin, "A game for the future of the world, one that has shinobi finally unified as one..." she paused, tilting her head in query, "Does that sound fun?"

"Peace is the goal of youth, Yugito-chan! Of course it's fun! But what does this all mean?" he asked, clearly confused.

If she weren't already thinking of silver hair and one dark eye, she might have even thought Gai looked attractive in the way he asked. He did have very nice teeth after all. But nevertheless, Yugito let herself chuckle off her anxiety and roll the tension out of her shoulders.

"This might sound weird but I promise you it's the truth..."

Then she told him.

"WOAH!" Gai let out a shout as soon as she was finished, making her jump nearly out of her skin. He blinked at her in what appeared to be amazement, "This sounds like something out of an amazing novel! Is this meant to be a funny, youthful prank on me?" He grinned at her, "Just wait till I get you back—"

"It's true," Itachi deadpanned, taking a sip of his tea.

He looked especially bored.

Yugito blinked twice before looking at a clearly stunned Gai, whose jaw had gone slack.

"You make jokes now too, Itachi-san!?" he asked before turning to look at her straight on, reaching out to pull her hands into his, "Yugito-chan truly works miracles, such beautiful hard work and with a grace befitting of the loveliest of flowers blooming in the springtime! I am truly honored to be in your presence, someone who clearly wishes to bring only joy and happiness into the world."

Yugito was certainly regretting having suggested this in the first place now.

"They aren't joking, she's speaking the truth," Kakashi said, his voice somehow summoning a buzzing feeling in her stomach that quickly spread to her chest and arms. Gai was still holding her hands and with the Copy-nin's entrance, they were starting to get hotter just by his presence alone. With a nervous laugh, she pulled away and leaned against the wall, making room for Kakashi to sit besides her.

There was a pause in the room.

Clearing his throat, Kakashi seemed to hesitate a second before taking his place, rubbing his knee up against hers before putting an inch of distance between them. They didn't meet each other's eyes.

"Even my rival is in on this!?" Gai asked, looking truly taken aback as he interrupted Yugito's thoughts and the thick silence in the room.

The three of them were silent as they stared at him.

Gai frowned, tapped his finger on his knee in thought before blinking rapidly and swiveling his head to look in Yugito's direction, "Truly!? You see the future?"

"One," she corrected him, "only one version of it."

"Right, right," Gai wheezed out, looking at all three of them incredulously as it began to sink what this meeting was quickly turning into.

"Not in it's entirety," Yugito went on to clarify, "my memories follow a story-like pattern with the focus on the child of destiny, the one who is supposed to bring peace to the Shinobi Nations. So I don't know everything but what I do know..."

"Child of destiny?" Gai echoed, his mouth forming into a grin as he looked at her with raised brows, "Who? Who is this youthfully impassioned savior?"

"Uh," Yugito hesitated, her gaze flickering over the three of them, "Naruto Uzumaki."

Kakashi didn't look surprised—he'd already known. Itachi didn't seem that caught off guard either, if looking mildly amused. Gai, on the other hand, looked speechless.

"The Yondaime's son?" he asked, blinking at her and then reeling back as his eyes darted towards the symbol on her forehead.

"It's okay, I already know that he's the Nine-Tail's container," Yugito interjected before he could panic on spilling some sort of secret that was easy enough to decode if one put thought into it, "I know a lot of things actually."

"She does," Kakashi added helpfully.

She had no idea why, but there was that damned blush again. Yugito cleared her throat before she felt tempted to giggle madly like some of those other girls that she had witnessed in bookstores once upon a time. She focused instead on Gai's quivering lips as he took in the information.

"This meeting, Gai-san," she murmured, brushing her hair behind her ears self-consciously, "is so that we can protect the future. Things have changed from what it used to be in my memories and because of this," Yugito swallowed, "the world may be in danger of never reaching peace."

Gai inhaled, exhaled, and nodded with his arms crossing over his chest as he regarded her with the most serious expression she had ever seen on his face, "I understand."

"You...you do?" Yugito frowned at him, confused.

"Of course!" he nodded to himself firmly.

Then he stood. Itachi coughed.

" _Just like how the four of us are protecting a young boy, we are the protectors of the future youth! Defending against those that would dare to crush our spirit and the youth in this world. The four of us, proof, solid evidence that we_ can _be united! There is beauty everywhere in the world and all of it should be rejoiced and shared in! I am glad, Yugito-chan, to join you on this journey! Thank you for inviting me, we shall not fail in this!"_

Yugito blinked.

"Okay, great."

* * *

**Six Things to Admit - End**


	17. Seven Rules to Fake Dating

**Seven Rules to Fake Dating**

* * *

Tobio grinned down at his newest invention, wiping at his drenched with sweat hair with blackened fingers. There was the feeling again, the feeling of absolute fulfillment in seeing what he had seen so vividly in his head, there in front of him for the rest of the world to see.  
****

“It’s a tea maker!” He announced to the world, pumping his fist in the air before halting his action and glancing surreptitiously around himself. Tobio paused for a moment before turning back to the construction that he had just made out of pieces of scraps. In the air was still the scent of freshly brewed tea, a cup of one set delicately off to the side on his worktable and emanating the heat he was waiting to cool down to test the flavor of.

His mother was going to be so proud of him! Just like the machine that washed dishes, it would make things easier on his father when it came to the housework that his mom could trust with his dad. It also wasn’t everyday that he could finish off a design so quickly and within less than twenty-four hours to boot. Now, he just needed to patent it and look into means of production and turning it into even more of a money-maker than his other products.

It was always his goal with his creations—money. Not for the sake of greed, like his mother warned him against, but more for the sake of physical proof that his invention had helped people or was needed in the world. That and it would be great to help his mother with her dreams of reforming the clan she had come from and seen torn apart.

But regardless of all that, seeing his imagination and being able to touch it was always the greatest feeling in the world. He didn’t tell his mom about it but...it was even better than getting to eat her katsudon, which was already pretty great.

Tobio grinned at the metal in front of him, whispering a quick compliment to himself before picking up the tea cup. It was still warm, making him feel giddy as he brought it to his—.

“New invention?” a soft voice asked, making the boy jump—promptly spilling everything over as he spit out what little he had managed to sip from the cup. It wasn’t hot enough to burn but the mess it created was more than an annoyance, blueprints being covered in tea before he could compose himself fast enough to save them.

Greatly annoyed, he turned with a scowl on his face he looked into shining dark eyes, mischievous and with a touch of humor in them.

“Crow!” Tobio growled, flapping his soaked hands in the direction of the older teen. Dodging the spray easily by side stepping it, Itachi chuckled and raised a brow with that insufferably bemused smile of his. “You idiot! You ruined the first taste test!”

Itachi looked unruffled by the accusations as he leaned his elbows on the worktable and angled an angelically innocent expression towards Tobio, “Didn’t you hear me coming in?”

Tobio shot him an incredulous, if not a bit sardonic, expression, “You’re a ninja, crow!”

“Maa, maa,” another voice interjected, this time coming from that other cool shinobi that Tobio couldn’t help but envisioning himself to be like in the future. Cool, calm, maybe a bit mysterious and just all around intimidating. Right now, his mother still told him he looked like a snapping puppy looking for scraps. Highly insulting but one day he would be just like the wolf!

Admittedly, Tobio had initially read Kakashi wrong, which was partly why he admired him so much. Very few people ever surprised him and the silver-haired ninja seemed to be one of them. Originally, before he introduced his pack of dogs to them all, Kakashi had behaved much more like a cat. Quiet, calculating, perceptive and independent.

But wolves were quite like that too, weren’t they? Especially the lone one and, really, it was very easy to see that Kakashi was lonely. Of course, most of that changed when the cat was around him but it still remained true that he had proven himself capable of a being a wolf. They didn’t like to be lonely, after all, and it was clear to Tobio that the cat seemed to amuse him in a similar fashion to his own parents.

Still, Tobio scowled at Kakashi.

“Where is the cat?” Tobio asked the room, shifting to look back at his creation and empty tea cup.

“She’s asleep still,” Itachi murmured, mouth opening up to yawn before breaking into an open coughing fit. He turned his head to his sleeve and attempted to soften the sound of it but it was startlingly violent. Tobio jumped a little away from him, afraid of catching whatever the shinobi had contracted, before glancing guiltily towards Kakashi who seemed as impassive as ever.

“Seems like you should be asleep too,” Kakashi said, gentle humor in his voice with a touch of warmth in his words.

Tobio couldn’t tell if Itachi heard him or not—he was beginning to heave a little now, doubling over. His hand clenched over his mouth, dark eyes filled with tears that he quickly wiped away. Even when visibly ill, he still seemed to keep a shred of his composure. Itachi paused for a moment, breathing in slowly and laboriously before relaxing, letting his hand leave his mouth before straightening his back out.

“You should get back to bed, we had a late night,” Kakashi murmured softly, looking up from his book with concerned eyes, “Gai and I will take over for now.”

Itachi outright sighed, shaking his head stubbornly, “No. I’m fine. I just need something to drink.”

“Um,” Tobio spoke up, worried his voice would start shaking without his permission, “I can make you tea.”

“With this machine of yours?” Kakashi asked, tone filled with curiosity even as his eyes seemed glued back to his book. Tobio wondered what it was about and why it was so interesting but any attempts to see it had all been put a stop to by the cat.

“Yes,” Tobio answered, looking dejectedly at the blueprints soaked in tea before lifting them off of the table and setting them off to dry on the chair besides him. “I just put the finishing touches. It’ll make tea and maybe other drinks?” He wasn’t sure about the latter, having not intended it for anything but tea leaves.

“Coffee?” Itachi asked, voice gruff.

“What’s that?” Tobio deadpanned, causing both shinobi to exchange looks between the two of them.

“You’re parents don’t drink it?” Kakashi asked, turning a page in his very colorful book.

Tobio wrinkled his nose distastefully, “Is it that grown up stuff that Mama says makes Papa stupid?”

“You really are a kid,” Kakashi said, almost sounding amazed before chuckling, “Maybe you should think about becoming a shinobi like us.”

Itachi snorted, “Don’t joke about stuff like that Kakashi, you’ll ruin his life.”

Tobio felt like there was something he wasn’t getting and if there was one thing he hated more than anko beans, it was not being able to understand something. But he felt if he asked about it, they’d only tease him—the two of them had not really proven themselves open to question, unlike the cat who spoke quite often. Maybe he could ask her when she woke up if there was something funny about him becoming a ninja.

Because...maybe just a little bit, he dreamed about doing cool stuff like them. Just a little—not a lot!

Like backflips and saving people’s lives and being able to protect others instead of being the one protected...

His mother told him his uses were better put to his inventions but very rarely did he feel like his true worth had been met. There was something there for him, out there that he just wasn’t living up to yet. He wondered if that was becoming a shinobi, if he would even be any good at it...

But he couldn’t ask these jerks in front of him. They’d only laugh!

He _could_ possibly ask the turtle but even that just felt like a headache waiting to happen. The man was an enthusiastic assistant but not someone he could tolerate beyond that. So the cat seemed the best choice, even if she did come off as a bit of a strange character.

“Mama probably has breakfast ready,” Tobio said in lieu of nothing else to say, pressing for a change in subject, “She’ll have tea and, um, maybe coffee.”

Kakashi chuckled while Itachi gave him a small quirk of the lips, causing Tobio to sigh in mourning of losing his high chair. With nothing left to impress them with, Tobio turned away from the mess that was his worktable and went to the sink in his room to wash up.

He’d wake up the cat if she took too long to do it herself, he decided as he got into the grooves of his nails. Then, he’d ask her all about what it was like to be a ninja, to never be afraid at all and to be strong enough to protect the world!

That was, if he could get over the hesitancy in him to strike any sort of conversation with another person. They never ended very well for him and as always, it would be meaningless. Tobio had no friends to speak of after all, but he had his parents and that was all he really wanted in the end.

Though he had to admit, having the shinobi around was a lot less boring than usual.

He smiled at his hands just a bit, a little afraid of what it would be like to be left alone once again. It would happen sooner, rather than later, if the scroll in his pocket was any deciding factor. Which it, unfortunately, was.

* * *

“It’s the contractor,” Tobio murmured, lifting up the scroll in his hand with a grin on his face, “we’ll need to travel to Tokushima to meet him. He needs us there by the end of the week.”

“Wait,” Yugito blinked, “after the meeting, will the mission will be over?”

Tobio batted his eyes at her, his expression making it hard to read what he was thinking. Gaze glancing over at Itachi and jutting out his hips, he crossed his arms, “Yes.”

“That was shorter than expected,” she commented, a tiny bit surprised, “I was under the impression it would take longer.”

The kid sighed as if he were listening to something terribly stupid. His glance only seemed to add to this, as if he were pitying her, “I’ve been in the business long enough that people open up their schedules at the sound of my name and the possibility to work with my brand.”

 _You’re an eight year old,_ she thought, exasperated.

Yugito twitched but plastered on her fakest smile as she relented with a tight nod.

“I understand.”

 _I doubt it_ , his look said but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he looked to Itachi and held out a thin, tiny scroll, looking as fussily impatient as ever.

Itachi’s unperturbed expression did not change as he took it into his hands and opened it up, looking up a second later with so little emotion she almost thought it was a bad thing. Yugito tried to keep from speaking up, trying to tell the suddenly growing ball of anxiety in her chest to dissipate. Something in Itachi’s body was different, a little stiffer.

“A list of recommended doctors in the area we’re going to?” he asked and Yugito blinked in surprise, having not expected those words at all. What could they possibly need a list of doctors for? She swiveled her back back towards Tobio and eyed him suspiciously.

The kid, instead of looking as stubborn as usual, seemed to actually soften as he regarded Itachi with lighter eyes. Still, his posture only got stricter as he crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his footing to stand firm and tall, “You have a bad cough. A doctor would help.” He nodded stiffly.

“I do?” Itachi asked, looking baffled though now that Yugito actually thought about it, his voice had shifted into a gruffer tone. She had been under the impression it had something to do with puberty and his voice changing over the years she’d known him but if she listened closely...there was a soft gasp in his breaths that she could distinctly recall from all her visits to the hospital.

Yugito shifted uncertainly and looked at Itachi for answers to questions she had a hard time putting to words. Across the room, Kakashi twitched but he said and did nothing. Gai on the other hand, rushed towards Itachi and placed a hand to the pale teen’s forehead.

“Are you okay?” Gai screamed out in a panic, “Within you, is the light of youth dwindling? Fear not, Itachi, we will get to a doctor quickly and your health will soon regain the energy of youth that it once did!” With that, he brought Itachi into a clearly overwhelming embrace that was hesitantly returned.

“I’m fine,” Itachi murmured but it was lost in the tirade Gai seemed to have lost himself in. Yugito didn’t bother listening, instead reaching over to smack him upside the head and forcibly removing her little brother from his grasp.

As Gai lamented in the background, seeming to sober up a bit as Yugito turned towards Itachi, there was silence in the room as she brought her hands to his shoulders. They were slim, as they always had felt, but now it felt wrong. She didn’t want to think of it, Itachi actually being sick but...

There was something there, in her memories even. She couldn’t remember clearly, though she struggled to put her finger on it. In the end, Yugito released a heavy sigh and gently shook him.

“We’re going to a doctor,” she told him stiffly and with no room for argument.

He blinked at her sluggishly but didn’t look upset. Instead, he looked...a little bit relieved. In was then that she felt a bit of the tension in his shoulders ease, his breathing becoming less controlled. She fought off the urge to grip him into a tight hug and instead settled for a kiss to the cheek.

“Thank you,” he whispered softly.

She had no clue what to say to that. She’d done nothing of value for him, had possibly even been less focused on him lately. Kakashi had pretty much been the only thing on her mind the last few days and here he was, suffering and she’d...she hadn’t even noticed it.

Yugito had turned into a bad sister somewhere down the line.

She rubbed a hand over her face before shaking herself out of her thoughts and turning to Tobio, who watched them curiously.

“So when do you want us to leave?” she asked feeling just a bit faint.

“Tomorrow morning,” he mumbled out, sounding unsure of himself and entirely different to the Tobio she had built up in her head. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

“Okay,” she allowed, unsure of whether she could suggest them leaving earlier. It was clear to her that she shouldn’t, however, and it was perhaps the first time she’d seen him ever truly look his age. “If you need help with packing,” she told him, “let me know.”

Tobio nodded, regaining his composure quickly and looking just as confident as always. But there seemed to be a hint of something in his eyes, something more serene and thoughtful, less the controlling tyrant that he could easily become.

“So...” Yugito trailed off, clapping her hands together, “lunch?”

With that, they went about their day as it would usually go. It was almost a little strange to realize the mission was going to come to a close soon. It wouldn’t matter much for them on the planning side as they’d set up methods of delivering thoughts and ideas without having to meet, and had already discussed what little Yugito knew off the top of her head as it was. There wasn’t much they could actually do as it was, with most everything occurring further in the future.

So it wouldn’t ruin that for them but she had to be honest, she was almost a little sad to leave.

Though, only a little—nothing could beat out her actual home and being able to return to daily living with Itachi.

In her head, she sent another apology towards him at having neglected him the last few days, promising to dedicate the day to him if she had to. If only to ease her consciousness of him not _actually_ being sick.

Either way, time went on as it usually did, with the seconds ticking by one at a time.

* * *

He came into her room suddenly and much to her surprise.

There was dead silence before his voice filled the gap.

“We should go on a date,” Kakashi suddenly said and Yugito nearly choked on a build up of saliva in her haste to swallow it down. She turned to look at him, eyes wide as he lifted a brow at her in cool nonchalance.

“A date?” she echoed, not sure she had heard him right or not.

“Yes,” he nodded, then looked at her thoughtfully, “but not as we are now.”

“W-What do you mean?” she sputtered out, feeling a thrum of heat shoot up her chest as he reached down to pull her up from her futon. She’d just been intending to read before going to bed, having just finished packing, but there he was—ruining all of that.

“Let’s sneak out,” he suggested as one of his hands went to the small of her back, “and meet each other in the village for fish. But not as ourselves, not as Kakashi or Yugito.”

Yugito opened her mouth to protest, being the type to actually cherish her sleep, but she promptly closed it the moment realization overtook her. They were going to become different people and go on a...a date.

_He likes me!_

It was surprising, that voice in her head, cutting through all other thoughts as she regarded him with wide eyes. Attempting to blink her visible reaction away, she gave a slow nod in response.

Then her thoughts and heart were both racing as he gave her an eye-smile and left the room as silently as he had come in. She was confused and rightfully so. Sure, they had been flirting non-stop and had even sought each other out but this had come as a shock to her. She’d been under the impression that there was no way the two of them could ever even entertain the thought of the two of them...dating.

For one thing, they were from different villages and for another, she hardly knew him! Well, actually, she knew _of_ him quite well. It was him that knew very little about her, and who she never would have guesses would ask her such a thing.

Was this the night then? The night she’d give up her...

Yugito’s face heated up about as quickly as her deluxe stove did, which was in seconds and enough to make her sweat. She raised her cool hands to her cheeks, hoping to alleviate it but wasn’t as successful as she hoped she’d be.  Instead, she slapped her puffy cheeks and let out a soft yelp, shaking her head literally to get it out of the gutter.

Now that she thought about it, if this was the night for it...

“No,” she said to herself, not even surprising herself, “we’re just going out for fish. That’s it. I’ll let him kiss me but beyond that, nope. No way. Not on a mission.”

Oh jeez, since when had she become so unprofessional as to _sneak_ _out_ for a date with an _enemy_. Hah! She wasn’t fooling anyone, she didn’t really see him as an enemy but still, that’s what it looked like to outsider's. Dejectedly and thinking of finding a way to turn him down, Yugito looked at her knapsack and what little she had brought in terms of styles of clothing.

She wanted to go out.

“I’m going to go out,” she muttered stubbornly and opened up her pack to search through it for something a little more decent.

“Looking for something?” a female voice asked and Yugito looked up with a reddened face to see Asuka leaning against the doorframe, a cup of tea in hand.

_How did I not hear her coming?_

Yugito blinked at her and attempted to bring her cool facade back to save her from humiliation. She could only assume it was her heartbeat that had muffled the sounds of everything else.

“I’m looking for my book,” she explained, her voice surprisingly controlled.

“It’s on your bed,” Asuka pointed out with her finger and Yugito looked over with a sigh to see what she’d already known to be true.

“Oh!” Yugito said, as if surprised, “Silly me, always misplacing things, ahaha.”

“You’re heading out for the night with that young man?”

She froze stiffly, swallowed, and then practically forced her head to turn back towards Asuka.

“Need something to wear?” Asuka asked, humor in her eyes. To Yugito’s silence, the mother continued on with a softer voice, “Tobio’s father and I were from different villages too. Bit funny how life works out. The people we love the most can come from very far places.”

Very far indeed.

But it didn’t matter because this was different. Yugito wasn’t about to get _serious_ with him and neither was he to her. They both knew it couldn’t work out, and not just that, Yugito had no desire for something like that with someone like him. Kakashi was too much of a mystery in his actions, she would never be able to keep up with them.

Not to mention that they had business with each other and shouldn’t mix it with anything else.

Yugito sighed, looking down at her palms, “I don’t know. I don’t know if I will.”

“Well, you only live once,” Asuka reminded her though without her meaning to, it only added to the confusion of her emotions.

 _But I didn’t live just once_ , she thought and she shifted uncomfortably with the knowledge settling in her gut, knowing that there was another life that she had already lived but refused to remember. Some things were just too bitter, too sad to recall or more often than not, too happy.

She couldn’t remember if she had someone in that life, someone that loved her like Harua loved Asuka. Or had _she_ loved someone? God, she was alone—.

 **Don’t think about it, kitten** , Matatabi spoke up as if just waking up from a nap, a touch of warmth in the voice that worked the wonders of calming Yugito. She felt less alone in the presence of the cat within her, making her almost feel a bit more clear headed.

 _What should I do?_ Yugito asked, still uncertain if she should just stay in to read before bed.

 **Go have fun** , the cat responded lazily and with little care.

Fun. She wanted that. Something to calm her down, something _different_ to the realities she lived every single day. A chance to forget about the world and enjoy herself. It had been far too long since she had done it, perhaps...not really ever, in this life time, had she taken a day purely for herself.

Yugito set her jaw and looked over at Asuka, “Do you...maybe have something that I could wear?”

Asuka smile turned warm and the redheaded woman nodded, waving for the blonde to follow after.

* * *

Kakashi asked her out in the spur of the moment, having just left the shower and with the goal of giving their relationship one last hurrah before promptly letting it die. Still, he had no plans beyond eating fish with a pretty girl and was tempted to call it off for fear that he was acting like an idiot.

 _People go on dates all the time_ , he told himself but it didn’t change the fact that _he_ didn’t. He rarely socialized beyond the few people who forced their way into his life, and him actually going out of his way felt strange and misplaced. _He_ felt strange and misplaced, especially around her. Which was why Kakashi wasn’t going on the date.

Sukea was, and with his heightened skills of conversation, it would be a fun night. He just...he wanted to talk to her. Ah, it got weirder the more he thought about it. Rarely was he so interested in another person but he wanted to hear her voice more, and ask her things if only to hear her often-times interesting response. She looked at the world in a way he never could, and there was something akin to...to magic in her eyes.

Maa, he was being an idiot, finally taking the last step into becoming Obito. It was all he need in the end to emulate him completely—a girl to fall in love with.

“It ends tonight,” he reminded himself as he waited outside the restaurant, leaning against the side of the building. He was attempting to look natural but he felt he wasn’t completely pulling it off in the end. He just didn’t _feel_ natural.

Kakashi should just leave, forget about all of it and apologize the next day for skipping out on her. Yeah. Something like that where he didn’t have to constantly remind himself that she was from Kumo. That it could never work out between them. That he barely knew her. That he knew her a lot better than he led on. After all, there was only so much one could listen to her tell her stories without picking up on a thing or two.

She was bright, someone he didn’t deserve to stand by for fear that it could ruin everything. He knew he would eventually—things all came crumbling down, it was the inevitable end to all things. Especially so within regard to him.

Kakashi blew out a breath, more to the ease the tension in his gut—why was he even nervous?—than anything else. But it was all for nothing when traces of the wind carried along with it that familiar strawberry scent.

Next was the warmth as she slipped a hand into his pocket to clasp her fingers with his. It was a jolt to his system to feel her so close, and somehow feel a mixture of anxiety and peace fill him. Strange, so strange. He felt the tension in his body fade out but the beat of his heart was still going strong, making it all the stranger. Like his body was going lax even as everything else told him to stay attentive.

He met her gaze, curious as to what form she had taken.

“Hello,” Yugito said, fingering black hair and meeting blue-green eyes with her own cat green gaze. Kakashi—Sukea—smiled back though he was a bit taken off guard to discover that there was nothing different from her usual face, the same delicate bone structure and red lips prominently on her face.

This was Yugito still, and she was _beautiful_.

“My name is Chiyoko,” she said with a grin, placing her arm alongside his as she held his hand within his roomy coat pocket, “and yours?”

“Sukea,” he responded, using a different voice and rather thankful that she had left her silky contralto the way she naturally spoke.

Yugito laughed, her eyes lighting up, looking all the more radiant with the lighter color in contrast to the dark mane surrounding her. Kakashi lowered his gaze, following the direction of her long hair and finding instead something that was not so kind to his already quickened heartbeat.

First thing he noticed was her exposed midriff. Second was the tight black shorts she had on with light, peach colored knee-high socks. Then was the burgundy top with long, flowing sleeves and with a low enough neckline that her prominent collarbones were fully displayed and accented all the more with a jeweled necklace.

In short, Yugito was ridiculously hot.

“You dressed up nicely,” Yugito commented, looking cheerful.

Kakashi couldn’t resist it, he smiled back at her with perhaps a little more teeth than he had intended. It was then that her response left him entirely silent.

Yugito kissed him gently on the corner of his mouth, laughing softly to herself when he lifted a hand to touch where he still felt the sensation of her lips. His emotions were mixed as he regarded her. A desire for what had only just began to never end, a belief that it would end terribly, and a very strong urge to give her a real kiss.

Kakashi lifted his hand to her cheek and was again made surprised to touch her skin, awed by how soft she felt to touch. The curve of her jaw, the rise of her cheekbones, the rounded ears, all of it looked mystifying to him. Still, Kakashi dipped his head, closing his eyes briefly before letting his lips rest upon hers.

It was a brief kiss and perhaps in a way, it was the best way to describe their relationship.

Brief but with all the sweetness of a kiss.

How it should be between them.

“I want tuna,” Yugito said, putting a bit of distance between them even as her hand tightened in on his. He squeezed hers and nodded.

“I thought you would say that,” he told her, “Tekkadon for the both of us, then?”

Yugito gave an enthusiastic nod before releasing a breathy laugh. They weren’t moving still, just standing in each other’s company.

“What are you laughing for?” Kakashi asked, though he couldn’t help but chuckle himself.

“I’m just happy is all,” she answered, as if it was a simple matter.

“Me too,” Kakashi surprised himself in saying, causing her to take a pause and look up at him with mild surprise. His own shock was probably made evident as he blinked at her dumbly.

Then, her smile turning warm and making him feel close to the edge of melting, she nodded, “Good.”

If only it could have been.

* * *

**Seven Rules to Fake Dating - End**


	18. Eight Reasons to Say Goodbye

**Eight Reasons to Say Goodbye**

* * *

"It's a first for me," Yugito murmured as they sat in a booth sequestered to the back of the restaurant waiting on their orders. Nervously, she drummed her fingers against the table, praying the clicking sounds would soothe her in some fashion. It did not.

Every time she looked at him, even with him looking so different—which was certainly a shock to the system—there seemed to be a hint of what she had been feeling any time she was around him recently. She could distantly recall similar feelings to when she was fond of Kirābī but...she had never recalled it being so...

Hot.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi, or rather _Sukea_ , asked.

"Sidling on a mission," she answered, trying not to feel embarrassed about saying it. Like it was some sort of big deal that she was only just finding her rebellious streak. Damn, Yugito felt so childish, like a kid lost on what was cool or not. She was _twenty-four_ for crying out loud.

Yugito blinked.

 _Twenty-four_.

"What is it?" he asked, and she was temporarily distracted by his ability to morph his voice.

"My birthday was," she counted in her head, "two and a half days ago."

He lifted a brow in surprise, "And how old does that make you?"

She flushed, unsure if she should admit the truth or not. What did other women do in order to flirt? It wasn't as if she minded him knowing or not, it was just that with interesting ways to put something to words...she was boring.

"Perhaps a bit older than you," she murmured, exhaling as she looked away.

It wasn't intentional but as her long hair slipped down her shoulder, she shuddered unconsciously. She would have been lying if she said it didn't affect her in different ways, drawing to her mind images she would have been better off leaving alone. Like a caress over her shoulders and down her back, a finger gliding over smooth skin and—if she were to add to the fantasy—hot breath on her neck.

"A guessing game, ne?" he wondered and she looked over at him then, just in time to see his gaze locked steadily on her.

As if he couldn't dare look away.

"A drinking game?" she countered, running her fingers through the long, curling locks of dark hair. It was a strange thing to see it, to even feel the difference of it. Yugito would have been lying if she said she wasn't being emboldened by the differences in her appearance.

Like she really was a girl named Chiyoko and not at all like the boring girl she had always been before.

"It's fire you're messing with," he murmured lowly, sounding nearly the same as the Kakashi she had come to know.

Yugito grinned.

"I struck the match."

"Hm?" Sukea intoned, a hint of a sharpened canine making an appearance as he smirked, "Don't complain to me when I'm left dragging you back."

She scoffed, "You're speaking to someone with the metabolism of a bijū."

"Am I, Chiyoko?" Kakashi, no, _Sukea_ asked, looking at her with a sly expression that she would have been better off for not seeing.

 _Two can play at that game_.

"Cat's out of the bag then?" she wondered with a sly smile of her own.

This time when he grinned, it was slow spreading and just...innately _him_. There was no one else but Kakashi in that expression, the mischief in his eyes clearly his own matched with a heat she had seen before in one dark eye but never in two. The lighter color of them only seemed to make it all the more intense and for a moment, Yugito was caught. Entranced. Utterly unable to think of anything else— _incapable_ of thinking of anything else.

Then their food arrived.

"Tekkadon is my favorite," Yugito said softly after clearing her throat the moment they were alone again. She felt slightly out of her body, still suspended in the moment where she had been captured just moments before. It was difficult to breathe and the only saving grace seemed to be her tight grip on her chopsticks and the intent to eat the sliced tuna before her.

"I like shioyaki better," he commented before opening up his mouth to take a bite.

She went silent for a moment, simply content to watch him. Someone who moved so fluidly, with such subtle and silent changes of expression, with eyes that were so focused and felt so warm to be beneath.

Then she blinked and the sudden realization of her actions caught up with her very quickly.

 _Listen to yourself think!_ Yugito cried inwardly. She was surely going insane—and he was sure to see her as some sort of creep now.

She cleared her throat and took a sip of the shōchū he had ordered for the both of them. It was hard to keep her face impassive—she really wasn't the best at handling the _taste_ of alcohol—but somehow succeeded long enough to take another drink.

"The world is kind of funny," she told him softly, looking at the liquid in the cup and tempted to blow on it to create ripples on the surface. But something in her couldn't let her do it. Perhaps it was seeing her reflection and catching sight of dark hair and bright eyes. The exact opposite of her.

"If only it stopped to laugh and appreciate its own humor every once in a while," Kakashi added.

"Give us a break," she agreed.

They were both silent for a moment, seemingly content with the words they'd just shared.

"Well," she said mostly to herself, "I suppose we could laugh for the world instead." Yugito looked up and grinned, lifting up her cup as if in celebration, "More fun for us, ne?"

"To survive, at least," he murmured in response, taking a swig of his own drink. His eyes never left her.

Yugito parted her lips, unsure of what to say to that and strangely enough, in a moment where he seemed more transfixed than she was, Yugito found something.

"I want to live."

He stared at her.

"I don't want to just leave it at survival. I want to be happy. I want to live."

"And if you can't?" he asked, a strange expression crossing his features.

"I'll keep trying," she told him bluntly, swirling her drink just a bit to watch the liquid swish inside. She paused, struck by a sudden thought as she said, "It's a part of living to try."

"So aren't you already doing it? Living, I mean."

Yugito tilted her head to the side, unsure of what to say.

So she shrugged instead, "Unless we give up entirely, aren't we all?"

"It's that easy, huh?" he said softly and with a sigh. He wasn't looking at her anymore, eyes trained on his cup.

"No," she answered though it wasn't much of a question, turning to look out the window and into the nighttime, chin in her hand as she leaned forward. "It's the hardest thing anyone can really do," she whispered, "to keep trying knowing it might never mean anything in the end, to know it might be easier to stop and quit. Those people sure are courageous, hm?"

"It's true then. I've never met someone brave in the way you are."

Yugito blinked in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"You've never lied to me, in all the time I've known you. Not once. That sort of honesty...is practically impossible to find these days. I think it's brave to stick to the truth, no matter how ugly it is."

She was stunned.

Yugito opened her mouth, only to close it the more his words sank in.

"I—I'm not—I mean, I don't," she attempted to stutter out, not having any clue on what she was really saying to begin with. While it was true she'd never tried to be dishonest with him, it wasn't as if she was _brave_ for it. Lots of people told the truth!

"It's why I like you so much," he told her and it felt pretty much like her face had burst into flame.

Yugito couldn't look at him, the handsome stranger, saying those words.

Instead she looked intently at the tekkadon that she hadn't been eating much of. It seemed perfect to see it there, like something she could use as an excuse to avoid what the hell he had just said to her. She pursed her lips and reoriented her chopsticks in her hands before picking up a slice of tuna. She was seconds away from eating it, opening up her mouth...

Then he swiped it.

She blinked at him in surprise before quickly relearning herself and the fact that he'd just stolen a bite from her.

"You know how to make yourself a pest," she told him before reaching over to his bowl to pluck a slice and erase the debt. But then, with a chuckle that hit her in the guts, Kakashi snapped up her chopsticks with his own.

"Jerk," she muttered, leaning back to cross her arms over her chest. Her goal was to stare him down until he gave back her utensils but he seemed to have something entirely different in mind.

Picking up a slice of tuna, he held it up to her with a teasing smile that she certainly did not trust.

Yugito pursed her lips as soon as she realized it had finally come down to the battle of wills between the two of them. Which would only make things feel awkward and goddamn it. Fine. She would be the bigger person and just a little...

She leaned forward, opening up her mouth slowly.

Elbows on the table, his actions were quick as she took the tuna into her mouth and swallowed. It was strange, like something else should have happened instead. She had been prepared for something else to happen, some new way to tease rather than just simply feeding her. Now, taking a sip of shōchū, she was left wondering exactly what it was that left her feeling so...disappointed?

"Did you expect something else?" Kakashi asked, reading into her expression and making her flush in response.

"No," she mumbled, looking away as she deflated and released a soft breath.

 _Just calm down_ , she told herself and took the chance to smile at him as if to prove a point.

"Is that so..." Kakashi trailed off, and the silence quickly encroached upon them.

She had no idea what to say next, only that he still had her eating utensils and she still had too much pride in her to eat with her hands.

Yugito bit her lip and thought of something to say, some way to inject something interesting back into the conversation. Something that could keep her mind off of all the things it wanted to wander towards. Something safe, maybe something funny? Oh, who was she kidding, Yugito didn't know how to talk on dates!

Her last one had gone down in disaster for her inability to engage in conversation and here she was, struggling to think up some sort of stupid question that would save the day. More and more she wanted the both of them to just shut the hell up and get to the real action, something that required no words and no pressure...

Then Kakashi spoke up, sliding her chopsticks back towards her on the table, "Do you believe in ghosts?"

She blinked at him, caught off guard by the question that she hadn't exactly thought much on.

Yugito tilted her head to the side and used her chopsticks to nibble on the quickly cooling rice.

"I don't know if I believe in ghosts," she told him frankly, then slid her gaze out the window once more as she whispered her next words, "but I do believe in reincarnation."

"Oh?" Kakashi sounded almost as if he were surprised and when she glanced over at him, he looked genuinely interested.

Yugito swallowed and prayed her heart would stop beating so quickly. But it only seemed to beat all the faster as his gaze stayed on her and his eyes, looking as if he wanted to hear her speak, never blinked.

"It would be sad, wouldn't it?" Yugito began in a mumble, "If we were to believe that after we die we remain the same in spirit. If we simply went to a place where we wouldn't need to grow or change, as if it were that simple to erase our problems. If we became ghosts to wait for our loved ones to come join us, as if life was simply nothing of importance to care about. That seems like such a...waste."

"So you seek meaning in life?"

"I guess," Yugito mumbled out, shy to be speaking about things she had literally never spoken to anyone about—ever. Sucking in a breath to calm herself, she finally looked to him and asked, "What do you believe?"

"I just want to meet them again someday," he said and she blew out a breath.

 _I wonder,_ she thought, trying not to feel the heaviness of her heart, _if anyone wants to meet me again_.

A life she forgot more and more about with each passing day, people she had loved that she could no longer love. Did someone in that other world feel that way too? Missed, remembered, cared about. It all felt like such foreign things to her—when it was directed _at_ her.

"I want to see a few people again too," she told him, and smiled just a little, "so maybe it would be nice if such a thing as ghosts exist?"

"Hm?" Kakashi shook his head, looking amused, "I like your idea better though. The people we loved...they should be alive. Even if it's somewhere we can't go."

Yugito couldn't help it—she thought about _him_ , the father she had wished was hers.

Placing her face into her hands, fearful that she might begin to cry, she shook herself to regain a hold on the hardened shinobi she had worked hard to be. Yet it was difficult to feel a connection to that girl, even more so as dark hair fell around her shoulders.

"Yugito?" he asked, sounding worried.

It was what she needed.

As if a dam was breaking loose, she began to laugh. Wildly and perhaps a bit hysteric but muffled by her palms as she caught the tears that wanted to escape. It was all just so ridiculous—she was really losing it!

"My name is Chiyoko," she managed to wheeze out as she struggled to regain her composure. Still laughing, she wiped at her eyes before grinning at him broadly, "Are you really so dense that you'd forget that? Intolerable man," she chided him.

Sukea grinned back at her, "My bad, I forgot only because I was too distracted by your eyes I hope you know."

"Ah! So lame!" Yugito cried out, giggling as she reached over to smack his shoulder.

Instead, as she extended her arm out, he caught her hand, entwining his fingers with hers as easily as if he did it everyday. Silent, he tugged her forward and in what felt like a blink of an eye, he was kissing her.

It was quick, a peck at most, but it made pieces of her feel as if she were floating—her heart, most importantly, was beating to the point that it felt as if she were on the last hour of a rigorous training program.

"We're in public," she mumbled, face red. Even so, she couldn't complain much more beyond that.

"Nobody was looking," he told her, then as if to test her patience, he leaned in to kiss her again—on the chin.

"You missed," she told him softly, before reaching over to grab him by the back of the neck. Yugito pulled him in closer, and with his hot breath misting over her face, she rested her lips against his with a sigh that made it all feel so...

Right.

When Yugito pulled away, it wasn't because she wanted to.

Rather it was because now she had something she couldn't very well hide from herself. She hadn't been able to before when she was a mere teenager in love and she couldn't do it now, especially with it making itself so obvious to her.

She liked Kakashi.

A lot.

"Ne, Sukea-san," she began, voice sounding thick with emotion she would have much preferred not to show.

"Yes?"

Yugito took a breath, mulling over the way to word it before finally meeting his eyes, "If you had the chance to start all over again in a world where you wouldn't have to fight and kill in order to survive, what would do with your new life and why?"

"Hah..." Sukea released a breath and chuckled, lifting up his cup and taking a swig before meeting her eyes and answering her, "I think I'd like to photograph that world—and maybe show it to you."

"Show me?" she asked, a bit surprised, "Would I even be in that world?"

"I'd like to think so. If anyone deserved a world like that, it would be you."

"No," she murmured, looking away and towards her still half-full bowl of rice and tuna, "I think I'd just waste the chance."

Just like she had done in this lifetime, this second chance of hers.

"While no one can go back and change the past, we can still start from now and change the future."

Surprised, Yugito looked up and met his eyes. Kakashi was...he was smiling.

"A man I once respected said that to me," he explained to her, "though I've always thought it was a bit too optimistic for someone like myself to really believe in."

"Hm? I dunno about that," Yugito said with a smile of her own, "Real optimism is saying that even the past couldn't affect the future—delusional bullshit, if you ask me."

"Those sort of people read too much into fantasy novels," he added in agreement.

"Hey..." Yugito trailed off, suddenly hit with a thought as she struggled to find the right way to word it, "let's do something we've both never done before."

Kakashi blinked, "Never...done before?"

Yugito grinned, "Yup! First times are important and while we're on our first date, we should do something fun, adventurous! Something the civvies do when they're feeling mischievous. Something like..." she trailed off in thought, nearly deflating in realizing that she didn't _know_ what civvies did, but then a hint of something from that past life of hers came to her and she couldn't help saying it out loud, "skinny dipping!"

Kakashi cocked his head, lifting up his glass before asking, "What is that exactly?"

She almost wanted to take it back but the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to do it.

There were lakes everywhere, it'd be easy to find one. It'd be even easier just to _let go_. Strip herself not only of her clothing but of everything else too. Hesitancy, uncertainty, responsibility, and everything else that suddenly held too much power over her and too much _weight_.

"Come on," she said to him, pulling out her wallet before she rushed to slip payment for the meal onto the table. Kakashi held out his hand to stop her, shaking his head.

"I'm the one getting S-rank pay for this, I'll pay."

Yugito shrugged, feeling perhaps just a little bit drunk as she mumbled out, "Okay, okay, let's just go!"

Kakashi was smiling at her too, as if he were catching whatever happiness bug that she had suddenly caught onto.

Yugito rose from the table as Kakashi slapped a few bills to the table, raising his hand towards the restaurant owner who gave them a knowing wink. Yugito couldn't help but release a giggle as they made their way out, feeling in the clouds as a hand came to rest on the small of her back.

She walked closely besides him, grinning each time she felt him against her. Something so simple, felt so much to be an entire reason to be happy. It was...

"Hurry, hurry," she whispered before taking his hand in hers and setting them at a brisk chakra-enhanced jog. She used both her sense of hearing and smell to feel out for the body of waters close by, moving instinctively towards the one closest towards them.

It was within the minute that they reached it, and she stumbled a bit on the rocks as they slowed down. Kakashi steadied her but Yugito was more focused on everything else. The moon, the swaying branches as the gentle wind swept through, the look of moss covering over everything, the rushing sound of the waterfall close by, the smell of moisture, wet trees, and the feeling of the summer's heated humidity covering over her like a second skin.

She loved it—all of it.

Beneath them was a sloping entrance towards the lake and Yugito had every intent to slide down like a kid. But first—Yugito pulled away from her now bemused date and began with her shoes. The boots came off easily and were just as easy to lay off to the side. A part of her wanted to just fling it to the wilderness but as always, there was still a sense of preservation and the knowledge that she needed to know where to locate all of her equipment and gear.

It wasn't until she began to pull off her shorts that Kakashi caught on to what she was doing.

"Yugito?" he asked cautiously and with a bit of an underlying tremor that otherwise wouldn't have been easy to detect.

"Who is that?" she asked pointedly as she shimmied them off and folded them to place them on top of her shoes and socks. More exciting than that though was when she lifted off the already revealing top and got to work unbinding her chest.

Kakashi squawked besides her though he would have been indignant if she'd told him that's what his reaction had been.

"Yu—Chi—Chiyoko?"

She gave him a pointed look, "Strip."

He went silent but she had no time to waste. It was hot and she wanted to swim, already aching to feel the cooling temperature of water against skin. It was something calming to think about, something grounding in a moment where she felt less herself than ever before.

Yugito was in the water before she could let herself think anymore, diving deep down as she clawed her way to the lower depths. She used to hate swimming, hated the feeling of fear that would overwhelm her at the notion of being so trapped but something was different in the moment. Less trapped, she felt...

Something that couldn't have been put to words even if she wanted to try.

Quickly, she rose out of the water and grinned at Kakashi who had already made it in the lake. Just a little bit she was regretting on missing out on his own show of stripping but more than that, she liked all the more that the purple markings on his face were sliding off his face.

It was a bit strange actually—Sukea and Kakashi looked different enough that a connection between the two could rarely be made. Yet Yugito couldn't help but see everything that she saw in Kakashi, in him as well. They were both masked characters after all.

Their emotions—it was all in the mouth.

His lips were slightly pursed, and if she read into it, she could see hesitancy in his eyes.

Yugito couldn't help but laugh as she waded over to him, feeling her toes brush the rocks beneath her. Before she knew it, she was standing up to her waist in water and the only thing covering her up was her own hair sticking very close to her skin. She wondered if it even looked marginally attractive or just a bit of a crazed mess.

"Skinny dipping?" Kakashi echoed from earlier before and she nodded enthusiastically, prying a bit of the dripping wet locks from her face and pushing it behind her ears.

"Naked swimming," she told him in explanation, though he'd probably already reached that conclusion himself. She grinned at him, closing more of the distance and chuckling a bit to herself when he inched away instead.

"Yugito," he said her name in warning and she didn't even attempt to correct him.

Instead, she chuckled, "Nervous now?"

"What are you planning to do?" he asked, rising up more out of the water to cross his arms over his chest. It was the first time she'd ever seen it so clearly, the clearly defined abs on his chest and the scars and nicks creating vivid white lines over his already pale body. He looked strong yet... fragile.

She could break him.

Perhaps that was what he sensed in her—something to fear, the possibility of the actions she could take. But she didn't want to hurt him, instead, what she ached to see was a smile. She'd even settle to his shoulders relax if she couldn't have her way.

She liked him, much more than she wanted to—much more than she should or even wanted to realize.

Why did she? What did she see in him that she hadn't seen in countless others? What about him made her feel such a strong myriad of emotions that she had never clearly gotten with anyone else before? Even with Bī, it had never been like this, never something that made her so elated and so, ultimately, _crushed_.

Something about all of it felt like she couldn't grab onto it. She knew there was something in her, something that had been the cause for all of her past failed relationships, the fear of opening up to people. Worse yet was that she _knew_ he was the same, practically even the same person with their brand of shared traumas and similar histories.

A small part of her resented him for it, but an even bigger part of her felt glad for it.

Just like she couldn't open up and be entirely honest with him, he couldn't entirely do the same either.

They were on equal footing, the two of them—and it felt strange yet good to know it.

Yugito laughed at his expression and with the sudden emotion welling up within her, she splayed out her arms and instead spun in the water. First, she began to hum, a melody that came right off the top of her head and reminiscent to every song that had ever touched her. Then, as she let herself sway to the beat of her own created music, she let herself sing just a bit.

Nothing lyrical or with any words attached, which was perhaps the best way to describe their relationship.

Something brief and sweet, something she wanted to last a bit longer, something she wanted to suspend in time for just a few moments more...

Then he caught her wrist and the music flew from her mind and mouth. Instead, his lips met hers, his hands running themselves up and down her back, down her sides in a haste to trace over the inches of her skin. They were hungry, quick as if in attempts to cover her in a layer of himself—then he slowed.

Like a trailing burn over her chilled, wet skin, he let his fingers slowly glide over her back before dipping even lower, then lower. His hands were on her hips, crossing over the sensitive places that she would have perhaps rather he didn't touch.

It was almost too much, yet too little.

More painful than she wanted it to be.

It could never be enough, a sensation she couldn't help but fear for the fact of it.

Yugito pulled away and as if sensing it, he brought his hands back up, resting on on her hip before raising one to her face. She gazed at him, wondering if she was perhaps hallucinating in seeing the Sharingan or in the fact that she was no longer looking at Sukea at all but Kakashi himself.

Unmasked.

"Why didn't you change your face at all?" Kakashi asked, trailing a finger down the length of her chin.

Yugito met his eyes and released a soft breath before whispering the truth that had her shaking just a bit from the weight of it, "I still wanted to come as myself and not as someone else."

"I see," he murmured out quietly, eyes trained on hers as he tilted her chin up towards him, tracing over her lips with his thumb. The strangest part was in the uncontrollable shiver that ran up her spine and like a candle lighting up, the heat was back and hotter than ever.

Slowly, with their gazes connected, they leaned in.

This kiss was different. It _meant_ something—and...

It hurt.

She pulled away quickly.

"We really can't do this," she told him and as much as she hated them, there were tears building in her eyes.

His hands were on her waist, his skin touching hers and it all felt so...

"I can't do it," she told him, lowering her head to rest upon his shoulders, her thighs touching his as she got close enough to bring her arms around his chest.

"I know," he said, surprising her.

She looked up, trying to read his expression through her blurred vision. It was impossible, she had no clue what he was thinking only knowing that she had been leading him on the entire night, thinking to herself that she was even _prepared_ for it. She wasn't—and she needed to explain herself.

"I don't want it to be so sad," she told him, trying to find the words that fit to the hesitancy in her actions.

"It doesn't have to be," he responded, resting his forehead against hers.

It was warm, it was _his_ warmth.

If she could have spend eternity there...

"But it is, Kakashi" she whispered to him and perhaps as a reminder to herself. Yugito swallowed, blinking away the moisture in her eyes as she pulled back to meet his gaze properly, "and you...you need to stop hiding from yourself."

"I don't know what you mean by that," he said, working his jaw as he stared at her. His expression was turning hard, less as if he were angry and more as if he were simply shutting down—a refusal to listen.

Yugito snapped, "Yes you do! You've been keeping yourself from your emotions this entire time! When I told you about Obito-san, you couldn't take it! When I told you about who killed your teacher, you couldn't take it! Then—then when I told you about how close your friend had been on the day your teammate died, you _couldn't take it_ ," she met his gaze firmly as she paused, then, "Kakashi, I already know it. I know that it hurt you and I'm—and I'm sorry! I'm sorry you're hurting and I'm sorry you've lost the people you love!"

In what seemed to be his breaking point, he'd hit it.

" _What the_ _hell_ do you _know_ about how _I_ _feel_?" Kakashi asked, hands squeezing hard enough to rise to the surface bruises on her arms. His eyes were wide, his voice rough and breaking, with questions in his eyes that seemed intent on seeing her broken.

"I know enough," she whispered, attempting to pry his fingers off of her. He wasn't letting go.

"You can't, you can't know," he spat at her, holding her right beneath his heated gaze, "You have no idea what kind of hell I'm in...everyday it just gets worse and even the good things, things like knowing you, they always get ruined. Whether I'm too mean, too conceited, too boring, too strict, _too everything that I shouldn't be_ , everything around me is hopeless and it's something I can't change! I've tried and it never does!"

There was silence as he finally dropped his hands away from her—the pain of it lingered long after.

His breath sounded harsh against her ears. Just as tired and frustrated as she felt.

Surely he had come to regret knowing her, hadn't he?

"I _do_ know, Kakashi," Yugito mumbled, harshly rubbing at her eyes as she attempted to keep from breaking into a sob, "I know it because that's what I've been doing for years—hiding, afraid of what it'll be like if I face it honestly. The truth that I killed the person I loved most in the world, the fact that I haven't done anything that would make them proud of me, or that I've be stuck in that _hell_ for _years_ wasting every single moment of my life that could have been spent being _happy_! I know it and I know _you_."

He was quiet for a moment and then he was looking at her, his own eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears. Slowly, as she looked back at him, he reached towards her.

They didn't say anything but she could tell he knew what she did.

Things had ended between them before they even could have really started.

Yet they didn't want that—they wanted something very different.

Yugito closed the distance, stepping into his arms as she wrapped her own around him. Desperately, wishing that everything was different and that he had never been hurt before, she squeezed him just as tightly as he did her.

"Let's head back," she whispered, curling her fingers in his hair and liking the way he smelled.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"Come to my room tonight," she murmured, feeling a sudden hit to her energy reserves as her eyes began to droop. Yugito clung to him all the more, refusing to let go.

"Then what? What do you want me to do?" he asked softly.

"Just sleep with me," she whispered, pulling at his hand and letting it rest on her hip. She met his eyes and pleaded with him silently, "I want to dream of something pleasant, something with you."

"Alright," he murmured, sounding just as exhausted, "but I'll warn you right now that I hog the bed when I'm at my best. You aren't going to be prepared for when I'm at my worst."

Yugito chuckled, "I think I'll survive."

Just a little, he smiled.

"I hope you do."

* * *

**Eight Reasons to Say Goodbye - End**

* * *

**BONUS #3 - Kakashi's POV**

* * *

Something stupid I wrote on Thanksgiving. This may or may not have happened in fic-canon (most likely not, it would have been more of a somber mood).

* * *

She was warm beside him and almost perfectly still.

The fingers on her left hand—whether she was aware of it or not—had wound themselves in his shirt, pulling him all the closer to her with a grip he would have a hard time escaping. Breathing softly right next to him, her right hand rested right by his chest, her legs wrapped possessively around his own. Making it all the worse was the softness of her chest pressing up against him and the periodic whimpers that left her, like soft pants right next to his ear.

Kakashi did not hate this but he was certainly...not used to it.

Mostly, he slept by himself. Sometimes he could get claustrophobic if someone was hanging onto him too tightly, fear that he might not be able to escape it. Even if the women who had wanted him to stay had asked, he never did before. It was easier that way and less of a hassle to figure out a way to disengage. Kind of his motto really; avoid everything and there'll be no reason to stress over anything.

Except here he was. In bed—with a girl.

Yugito Nii.

So this was...

"A first for me," he mumbled.

"Hmm?" she grumbled out, stretching out beside him as her dark eyes blinked open. Her fingers on his clothes relaxed until she ultimately pulled away, running them through her hair as it curtained over her face.

_How does she do that?_

She looked like some sort of stretching cat, a playful kitten in the morning with a renewed energy around her. To add to the power of her image, there seemed to be an almost ethereal look to her.

With glimpses of the just-rising sun powering through the blinds, it hit her light hair just so—shining all around her as she swept it out of her face. Smiling with soft looking pink lips, her milk-white teeth glimmered before she released a growl of a laugh. It was the first time he'd really seen her without makeup, and with her delicately fine features, she looked as young as eighteen.

"Kakashi, it's so early," she mumbled out softly, raising herself up to her knees before crossing one over him, placing herself directly above him.

"Yugito," he cautioned, unsure of what she was actually planning to do. He felt his face redden just a bit with thoughts he would have really much rather avoided in the morning. Unable to really handle looking at her face for too long, he looked away and towards the ceiling.

"No, no," she whispered, obviously dissatisfied.

"Hm?" he intoned quietly as he stared intently at the ceiling.

Yugito latched her hands to his shoulders, coming to loom openly over him. The scent of strawberries enveloped him and right in front of his eyes, helped only by the thin tank top she wore, was something he couldn't help but sneak a glance towards.

"Look at me," she whispered softly, lowering herself to face him candidly. Instinctively, his hands went to her hips, then down to her thighs as he touched surprisingly soft skin. In meeting her gaze, Kakashi couldn't help but swallow as she pressed her mouth to his, a low _sweet_ sound escaping her as he ran his hands back up, running his fingers over the waistband of her underwear. When she pulled away, it was with a thrum of heat that shot up his spine the moment he saw Yugito lick her lips.

Then, with a soft exhale, she rolled off him and burrowed beneath the blankets, snuggling all the closer to him.

He didn't know what to think.

"Yugito?"

"Yes?"

"What was all that?" he asked, speaking without thinking. Kakashi was having a bit of difficulty relearning how to breathe.

She was silent for a moment.

Then, very softly, she mumbled, "Morning kiss. Another first."

Kakashi had no idea how to respond to that. So he didn't.

Instead, he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her just a little closer to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little note; every time she said 'skinny dipping' out loud, it was in English. There isn't a Japanese equivalent that isn't just, "let's get naked and swim"—thus, Kakashi's confusion.
> 
> So I think that the next two chapters (nineteen and twenty) will be the last of this year with the possibility of a third chapter before I take my official break. I'd really love reviews on this chapter ;-; this chapter took a lot out of me and it's probably my proudest update yet because I got to write about a lot of the topics I enjoy thinking about. I'd really like to hear my reader's thoughts on it too!
> 
> Special thanks to Enbi for listening to me babble on and on about these two dorks ad nauseam and for looking over this before I posted!


	19. Nine Seconds to Fall

**Nine Seconds to Fall**

* * *

 Itachi's chest hurt, sometimes even his neck and arms, and the pain was sharp with an ache that would slowly ebb away before making a sudden and biting reappearance. It was all vaguely annoying. Less of a concern to him, it was more of a hassle to try and wait it out. Of course, there was limited point to simply waiting for it to pass.

This was because, despite a childhood immersed with learning to tolerate pain, nothing could get past the utter mortification at the coughing fits he'd recently been having.

Like he had somehow aged up, it even affected his breathing and stamina which for so long had been well above average. Of course, he couldn't imagine his skill as a shinobi suffering too much. He'd still be strong enough to face about anything the world could throw at him, sans the chance at fighting a Kage or two. But that wasn't the point of his contention with his body's sudden illness.

Nothing—with this word greatly stressed—could keep him from feeling the weight of questions piling up in his mind.

Did this mean he was he going to die soon? Admittedly, Itachi didn't know much more than basic first aid but even he knew that blood was something of a sign to be more than a little concerned about. Even his memories could confirm this.

Once when he was a boy, an elder had suddenly began to cough up blood and though he'd been pushed out of view, he could still hear the echo of panicked voices and the clattering of a teacup falling to the tatami mat. The Uchiha clan rarely got so loud, especially in what was meant to be a small dinner meeting between the clan head and elders. Yet that was an exception, and it was something that remained with him.

What little more he knew, he'd read once in a beginner's medical handbook. It had said that blood from a cough could mean anything from an infection, numerous possible issues with blood vessels or, in some circumstances, cancer. These were issues that didn't exactly concern him.

Not because he didn't think he couldn't be affected by it but more because, long ago, he'd already faced what death would mean for him.

When he was young, a mere child, he'd been brought to a battlefield. He'd seen the end of people and he knew that some day, he would meet his own.

He'd realized long ago how tiny and insignificant he really was—so he gave up attempting to preserve himself unnecessarily. Even back home in Konoha, he'd rarely gone to the doctors for check ups. Of course, he'd relent for the monthly eye exams that his father was intent on him receiving but nothing more or less. He recovered from his inevitable wounds on his own and rarely sought out others to help him.

But this situation was different—a terrible cough had made it only all too obvious.

Perhaps, with Yugito distracted as she'd been lately, it could have gone on unnoticed—if only Tobio was not the keen eyed eight year old he was. But that was also depending on Gai or Kakashi not noticing too, which was unlikely.

After all, Gai had made it clear that, although Itachi was separate from Konoha, he still had real faith in him that "exceeded beyond claims of loyalty". It was a basic respect, a simple acknowledgement of him as a human being. Gai was also a very health conscious shinobi, perhaps more so than anyone else Itachi had ever known.

All things considered, it was part of why he liked the green beast but it wasn't doing him any favors now.

As for Kakashi...well, he had always been a far more aware person than most gave him credit for. He was somehow able to split his attention between reading and being constantly vigilant. Two things that Itachi was still training himself to do, making him all the more aware of its difficulty.

It was what sealed his fate—he would have to go see a doctor, there was no other way about it.

The thing was; he didn't _mind_ seeing someone about the cough. He recognized the use to medicine and in keeping good health but this was a different circumstance. There were others around him that would be aware of everything going on with him. Yugito would know if something was seriously wrong with him. Kakashi, Gai, and Tobio too. They'd all see.

They would all _know_ and...and something about that disturbed him deeply.

Itachi, for the most part, liked privacy.

He liked being on his own, preferably with a book in hand and someplace warm. Particularly, he'd grown accustomed to Yugito's living room window seat. The cushion was plush and every once in awhile he could look out and see the passersby. He could wonder absentmindedly about their lives, and fantasize about something different.

Somehow, despite everything, he couldn't confidently say he honestly wanted things to change.

If he even considered a different reality, there would be the sound of pans clicking in the kitchen or her soft hum in the air. He was happy, so happy in her home—in _their_ home. Quiet, warm, and with plenty of books in sight—he just wanted to go back there.

Itachi didn't want the cough and he didn't want them... _looking_ at him.

"Are you okay?" she asked and her voice had a hitch in it. He met her eyes and couldn't even stomach sudden agitation that cropped up as soon as he noticed Kakashi looking on. He wished Yugito hadn't had asked.

Now it was only a matter of time before—.

"Should we take a break?" Tobio offered, popping his head out of the sleeping bag strapped to Gai's back. It would have been a humorous and perhaps a bit cute, if it weren't for the question.

"I'm fine," Itachi insisted, feeling as if it was the millionth time that day when it wasn't even the third, "We only have three hours left of travel."

Tobio looked at him doubtfully and Gai seemed to give a cheerful laugh.

Ironically enough, it was him who saved Itachi from further discomfort.

"Three hours is like two minutes!" he cheered, running in step, "Let us go forth so that Itachi may rest at the end of our journey!"

Itachi held his breath as Yugito looked at him hesitantly. Finally, blowing out a breath and fixing a stray lock of hair, she nodded at Gai.

He couldn't help releasing own sigh of relief but made sure to enthuse his motions even more as he noticed the eyes on him.

The mission really could not end soon enough.

* * *

"They've all been acting strange," Tobio noted as he looked at his bodyguards, trailing him at a subtle distance and with expressions that were clear enough that he knew something was wrong.

Maybe it was gas?

Gai chuckled—he always seemed to be laughing at something—before shifting the sleeping bag, "We all have our struggles to face in life. If we let them work it out on their own, they'll come out stronger for it."

Tobio wriggled, trying to get feeling back into his legs, "But we need to help them too!"

"Of course! However, we must help them only when they ask for it," Gai said confidently.

"But some of them are _so_ stubborn!" Tobio cried, shaking his head distastefully.

Gai paused in his steps, considering his words, "Ah, that would be Kakashi."

"Yeah," the boy agreed, spying out the silver haired ninja.

He just looked so... _unhappy_.

It wasn't even his expression—there was aura around him that screamed of misery. His eyes, however, made him look perfectly alright. It seemed to be a powerful skill that only shinobi had mastered as even his mother didn't have a poker face so good.

The cat wasn't that much better off.

Her shoulders were slumped, her expression being particularly defeated.

"I wonder what happened between them," Tobio wondered softly.

Gai didn't falter this time but he felt the man's back tense against him. He wondered just a bit what the always smiling face looked like with a very different expression. Right now, was he frowning?

Tethered to his back, Tobio couldn't even shift around to look.

"Sometimes, something good doesn't work out. Sometimes, kid, the fire of youth burns too brightly and someone gets burned. We always run that risk, you see, when we take the chance of living at our max."

"The brightest flames burn out faster," Tobio mumbled, repeating what it was that his mother taught him when he was a little younger.

"You really are a genius, aren't you!?" Gai laughed out boisterously as that, "I hope you don't burn out too soon, little star!"

When would be 'too soon'? He had to wonder.

Then he noticed Itachi and he knew his answer.

Too soon would be being Itachi's age and looking so...dead.

He didn't literally look like a dead person—Tobio didn't even know what that looked like if he was honest—but his expression was so empty and...

Why was everyone so sad!? It was such a waste of time.

Tobio was a little bit alarmed on all that he was missing with them and it made him think; perhaps it wouldn't be so bad when they left now. Then he'd be done with the headache that seemed to be worrying about them. If this was what shinobi were like all the time, he didn't really want to be around them after all.

Like the stray cat his mother never let him keep, he would have to let them return to the wild from which they'd come from.

But that would come inevitably later and for now, he needed to put up with them for a little longer.

With a disgruntled sigh, Tobio spoke up to Gai, "We should go to the doctor first. Thankfully, we got here earlier than the contractor expected so we shouldn't be late."

"Good idea, kid!" Gai cheered with a little bit more pep in his step now that they had a renewed goal.

But the good mood could only last so long in the bunch Tobio was surrounded by.

"While Itachi gets checked out, Yugito and I will secure the meetup destination. Kill two birds with one stone," Kakashi said, suddenly appearing directly in front of Tobio and making him jump in annoyed surprise. So he really _did_ have boosted hearing!

Trying not to look as if he were impressed, Tobio simply nodded.

"How about, instead, "Yugito began as she closed the distance and add her voice to mix, "Gai and Kakashi take over perimeter security and I look after Tobio?"

Kakashi looked at her sharply while she pointedly looked away. Just like his father would do when his mother was angry about something.

Feeling that there was a possible fight brewing, Tobio snapped before it could progress even further, "I don't _care_ who does what, as long as the job gets done. Now, get me out of this bag! I can walk on my own," he grumbled, wriggling even more.

"Right," Yugito murmured, stepping forward just as Kakashi did.

Tobio rolled his eyes as they bumped into each other, exasperated by this point as he watched their adult antics.

"Enough with the moping already," he couldn't help but say, feeling the words slip out before he could stop them, "let's just get this over with."

That seemed to do the trick—Yugito laughed as she met Kakashi's wide-eyed expression. Then he poked her shoulder before crossing his arms and giving her a pointed look of his own.

She continued to giggle, "We sure got told, didn't we?"

The wolf rolled his eyes, "You're the one who had to interject with your own plan."

Yugito scoffed, slapping her hand against his hip, "Whatever you say, Wolf-kun."

"Couldn't come up with a proper comeback, Cat-chan?"

Tobio rolled his eyes around the same time that Yugito did.

"So could continue to be an ass?" she mockingly asked, "As if."

Weirdly enough, Kakashi didn't seem to be offended at the remark like Tobio would have been. Curse words are bad, okay? His mother always told him so and here the wolf was, his eyes shining as if he were smiling beneath that mask of his.

Sometimes he had to wonder who was really the kid around here.

* * *

 "It's your heart, boy," the wizened old man stated with no hesitation. He sounded as sure of his words as he was that the color of the sky was blue.

Itachi found no reason to doubt him, knowing that the doctor would have no cause to lie. His true identity was hidden—a lesson he'd kept in mind since his mess up with Tānība and the temple—and for all intents and purposes, Yugito was the mother of two boys just passing in for a check up.

That was probably the oddest part about all of it—Yugito transforming herself to look like an entirely different woman for the sole purpose to look and behave like his mother. Eerily enough, she looked a little bit _too_ much like his real mother and it was only then that he realized how much Tobio could look like his own little brother.

Odder was said little brother look-alike being _eight_ , the exact age that Itachi last saw Sasuke.

He wondered why he didn't make the connection sooner, perhaps holding onto the aspects of him that set him apart from the Uchiha clan. But it was plain to see and he was just a touch delirious at that point, wasn't he? That's all it was, right? Just a hallucination?

A lucid dream?

Itachi met the doctor's gaze while he ignored looking in the direction of Tobio sitting on Yugito's lap. It must have been the sickness making his chest feel all of a sudden too tight to breathe properly.

"And what about my heart?" he asked, hoping it couldn't be heard how out of breath he suddenly was.

"Well, it's what my medical textbooks call congestive heart failure. Simply put, your heart just isn't pumping the blood through your veins quick enough anymore. The walls in your heart have thinned to overcompensate and now produce a weaker pump. Nutrients that you need aren't getting to the right places quick enough and well, neither can the air you breathe. In short, your particular heart failure is systolic, which is exactly as I have described."

Yugito made an alarmed and shrill noise in the back of her throat. As both Itachi and the doctor looked up at her, she swept her hand over her forehead and asked, "But, is it curable?"

Scratching at his bearded chin, he turned to paw at the books on his shelf before pulling out a tiny small booklet and paging through it. With a grunt, he tapped the page he settled on with a dissatisfied expression as he held it up for their viewing, "Sorry, kid. It can't be cured."

"Oh," he breathed, unsure what it was exactly that he was feeling. He wasn't surprised, wasn't scared, or upset. He just felt...nothing.

"But, on the bright side, it can be treated through common iryo-ninjutsu and antibiotics," the old man gave a devilish grin, "I have one hell of a discount for both right now for the summer deals. You can sign up for an appointment now, if you'd like. I could be free for the next few hours for the right price."

Itachi ignored him and instead looked to Yugito, who looked both horrified at the doctor and worried as she glanced towards Itachi.

Tobio, too, bright eyes looking so dark with his hooded expression.

"We," Yugito hesitated, looking from Itachi to the doctor, worry clear in her gaze, "don't have the time for it right now. At least not today, unless we stay the night to come in tomorrow."

"Tomorrow can work for me," the older man said, stroking his long beard, "for the right price, of course."

Tobio released a huff of air, "We'll pay you for how good a job you do."

That only instigated a cackle out of the old man's mouth as he slapped his knee, "I see we got a voice on that child."

As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Yugito swept her fingers through the eight year old's hair, tilting his head back while he glared at the ceiling.

"So, you'll come in tomorrow?" the old man asked with a laugh chasing his words.

"Yes," Yugito murmured, moving to stand up as she lifted Tobio into her arms—he did not look to excited about the fact and let it known as she let him onto his feet.

For Itachi's part, he was just glad to have the nightmare over with for a brief respite.

Yugito shuffled the three of them out, her hand on both of the boy's backs as they left the clinic in a quickened walk. It was as soon as they got outside that she hefted Tobio back into her hold before they took to the roofs and hopped their way to the meet up point.

It was with great relief that Itachi landed on his feet in front of Kakashi, who was eyeing his book as per usual. As soon as they were all on the ground, however, he looked up and his gaze instantly landed on his own.

"How did it go?" he asked, sounding impassive as ever. It was almost as if they were talking more about the weather in the sky.

"Well," Itachi replied, smiling just a little bit when he heard Yugito hiss from somewhere behind him.

"Not good," she insisted stubbornly, "we've decided to stay an extra night in town for his first treatment."

"Wait, what's wrong with him?" Gai asked, looking more than a little concerned and more as if his favorite cat was about to die. Just a little bit, it made Itachi feel...looked after. It wasn't everyday that he felt secure like that but all around him, it felt warm.

He knew it and it was indescribable what that meant to him. They cared about him, despite how much he...did not.

"His heart is failing," Tobio explained, obviously in a short mood as he eyed Itachi. Then, his expression shifted and there was clear interest in his gaze, "Maybe he needs a new heart?"

"I don't think that's something he could just get so quickly," Yugito mumbled, looking uncertain, "Transplants don't happen very often and besides, there isn't many with the technical skill to pull it off or optional donors for it either. Then there's the fact that bodies can reject the transplant and that can only lead to more and more complications."

"Ah, you really do know a lot, don't you, Cat-chan?" Kakashi spoke up, subtly teasing her as she blushed before them all.

Yugito coughed, and shook her head, "I just like to read."

"I think I'll be fine with treatment and medicine," Itachi decided, feeling so dispassionate towards the prospect of him being sick that he didn't even want to let the idea linger on much longer. So he pointed towards the water-side factory that they had come to instead. "We're about to be late."

Tobio stretched his arms up into the air and gave an extended yawn as he nodded towards Itachi, "Yeah, so let's go already."

Gai still looked worried but he wiped that expression off himself soon enough, turning towards the building as he struck a confident pose. "Nothing can possibly go wrong. Kakashi and I are masters at detecting any and all threats."

"We've mapped it out too," Kakashi added in as he held out a scroll to Yugito, "Here's the best places for you and Itachi to be at. If anything goes wrong, these will be the vantage points that will optimize speed and should give you a nice place to look in on the proceedings."

"Got it," she murmured, opening up the scroll before gesturing towards Itachi to follow her.

They were silent as they headed towards the roof of building before sliding down the side of it to enter through an already rain spattered window. No wonder he felt a bit of a chill down his back, he could even smell something brewing in the distance.

"Down the hall and to the left is where I should be," Yugito told him, stepping into her mission facade as she tapped the map for emphasis. It was a welcome change and Itachi took to the familiar grounds in stride.

"Where should I be then?" he asked, stepping closer to see.

"Looks like it's down this hall, if I'm reading this right," Yugito murmured.

"Sounds promising," Itachi noted with a touch of humor in his voice.

It wasn't missed as she gave him a playful nudge, "Just get going."

Right, right.

He set to walking down the hall.

* * *

Gai laughed in the face of doubt.

There was no need for it—things would happen in life regardless of whether or not one was prepared for it. It was only a waste of time to hesitate, a waste of better opportunities to constantly hold oneself back out of fear. He had learned this back when he was just a kid and even to date, it had been the most painful lesson for him to learn.

But he was glad to have had it because otherwise, his life could have been very different—and not in a good way.

Now, if only he could impart a similar worldview to his good friend Kakashi.

As it was, it was nearly impossible for him to be optimistic, which was perhaps why he was such a sad person. At least, that was Gai's opinion and if it was to be made any different, he'd need Kakashi to actually open up and tell him how things were going.

Earlier, while Itachi was at the clinic, he had gotten so close! But alas, his rival was far too stubborn to talk about any sort of feelings.

Well, if he were honest, Gai might also say that he was a bit glad for it too. While he did his best to be that shoulder to cry on, he actually wasn't the best at it and technically speaking, he shouldn't be expecting any breakthroughs on a _mission_.

It was just that...he couldn't help but notice the way his friend was behaving. It was different than usual, a little bit more vulnerable than he'd seen him in a long time. It had to be because of Yugito, and while Gai was still undecided on who he thought of her, he was a bit more certain that this would ultimately be a good thing for the silver-haired nin. Or at least he hoped so.

He had to admit, that as a couple, they looked stunning.

The quiet realist inside him didn't think it would work out, however.

Yet the outer optimist just couldn't help but hope.

"She's beautiful," he commented to Kakashi, grinning at him with a thumbs up.

His shoulders tensed for a moment but it passed just as quickly before he looked up and met the green beast's gaze. He was silent for a moment, then, a gentle chuckle, "It seems so."

"She's a flower that bloomed from the cracks," Gai noted.

"How do you figure?"

He gave his friend and rival a look, "I didn't think I would have to tell you."

"True, that much is obvious in her."

A little bit ahead of them, Tobio grunted, "No more please."

Kakashi only chuckled, nudging the spine of his book against the kid's head, "Soon enough you'll be talking like that too, I hope you know."

"I hope never!" the eight year old cried out belligerently.

"Hope to never what?" a new voice interjected as the three of them entered into the largest room of the building. It was really much more than that, however, as it was better described as a very expensive machinery assembly line. Inside there seemed to be multiple parts of the same kind, stacked in piles and in rows. He wasn't surprised to see it all like he had been the first time, but before there was no one inside and now there was someone.

One someone—a woman.

Gai tensed a little bit, having been under the impression that they were expecting a man. Which could mean multiple things; a mistake in information trading, an enemy attempting to trick, or she was only a civilian who just so happened to be in the wrong place.

"Who are you?" Tobio asked, always the vocal one.

"Are you Tobio-san?" she asked instead.

"I am," Kakashi spoke up, reaching out to grab onto Tobio and pat his head, "This is my son, Irate, and this is the shinobi I purchased for my safety, Shu-san."

"Aahh," the woman breathed out, blinking in surprise as she regarded them all, "excuse me for my rudeness, my name is Fusasaki."

"And the contractor?" Kakashi asked, sounding polite.

"He'll be here soon," she answered, then frowned just a bit, "He's normally never late but it must be the storm."

"It is coming down quite heavily," Gai noted, enjoying just a little bit too much the way that his voice echoed in the room. "The sky has much exuberance to offer on this day, doesn't it?"

Fusasaki hesitated as she looked at him before nodding, giving him the look that he was used to receiving from females by now. Confusion and looking a touch uncomfortable.

Gai didn't just laugh at doubt, however—he laughed at pain too.

"It's beautiful, the sky is beautiful!" he cried, perhaps in a bit too much overcompensation.

Then there was a scream, tearing through the air suddenly as they all swiveled to look just in time to see Yugito herself falling through the roof and landing on a table piled with metal parts. She yelped as she hit it, rolling off the side with her hands already rubbing at her rear end.

Itachi was at her side in what looked like an instant, concern in his gaze.

Fusasaki looked entirely unimpressed, "Other shinobi bodyguards?"

"Yes," Kakashi replied, looking to be holding in his laughter as Yugito blushed furiously.

"It was water damage in the ceiling," she mumbled as her voice turned into a whine, "and besides, there's a really bad storm coming in. I think we should get prepared to be here for a while."

"What do you mean, a while?" Tobio wondered, sounding grouchy as he pulled away from Kakashi's hold on him.

"Well, the storm..." she trailed off hesitantly before pausing, as if intent on listening. Yugito met each of their eyes before continuing, "it's going to be pretty bad."

"We need to either get really down underground or really high up ground then," Kakashi said to the room, "It doesn't sound too far off from here."

"Can our day get any worse?" Tobio asked incredulously, "We find out Itachi's dying, the cat and wolf are having weird marriage problems, and the turtle is actually being quiet for once! What is happening?"

"I'm thinking," Gai responded, and he truly was.

He eyed the door, that surely led in the direction to a town full of people, full of lives that were caught unexpecting like they were.

"Will the storm be bad enough to hurt anyone in the village?" he asked, unable not to worry about the possibility.

Yugito looked uncertain but after a moment, she gave a slow nod, "It's going to be bad enough to rip the roofs off of places, I'll tell you that much."

Gai placed his hands on his hip, decision made and jaw set, "Then we shall put a stop to the storm itself!"

Tobio sighed in the background before muttering, "I knew it. I just knew the day could get worse. Turtle has gone _mad_."

"No, I have an idea!" he announced before jabbing his finger at the hole Yugito had just created with her body weight, "Water damage!"

"Please," Kakashi began, looking as if he were holding back on busting a gut, "explain."

Gai ignored him and instead looked to Itachi and Yugito, "What are your nature affinities?"

"Fire," they both answered simultaneously.

Then Itachi lifted his hand and added, "Tough I've been practicing wind and water. I'd say I could use both of them well enough for whatever it is that you want."

"I'm fire as well," Gai told them, then with a grin, "though I've also added lightning to the mix and what I can say about the combination of the two is that things can get very, very hot!"

Yugito made a face at him, "So what do you want us to do? Melt the water?"

"Exactly!" Gai said with a snap of his fingers, "Evaporation of the storm is exactly what this town needs!"

* * *

 

 **Nine Seconds to Fall - End**  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took all month to write, been feeling really burned out recently. I intended for this to be much longer and I'll be back with Gai fun times next update, along with an end to this arc in their lives.
> 
> Bless Enbi, it was her who helped me create a battle plan to get this out before the end of the year. I was a small lost lamb and she came in with Golden Words and Ideas that dug me out of the hole I dug myself in when trying to form this chapter. Please go check out her work, if you haven't already. She creates art with her words.
> 
> Extra Note; I may not respond to your review. Recently I've been finding it very hard to keep up with them, especially as I tend to put a lot of energy into my responses—even when intended to be simple. Especially with these last few chapters, I've not been able to get back to people like I really want to. Just give me some time please.


	20. Ten-Thousand Raindrops

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first update of the year! In February—on Valentine’s Day, which is why I was compelled to add in something that wasn’t originally planned for this chapter (i.e the bathroom scene).
> 
> In my defense, this chapter just wouldn’t come to me easily. That’s what I get for improvising this entire shebang, I guess. Next one will be very fun though and should come quicker this time because I get to write something I’ve been dreaming of for a long time. (Pssst, a Sasuke POV.)

  **Ten-Thousand Raindrops**

* * *

 Tobio snorted upon hearing Gai’s ideas, “Wouldn’t that hurt more than it helps?”

The green shinobi turned to look at him, incredulous, “What do you mean by that?”

“Wouldn’t too much heat be hazardous? To create so much of it in order to evaporate a storm, it would just turn into steam and dry everything out. This village is one that relies heavily on their fish culture, you could very well end the season like that,” Tobio explained in a deadpan tone.

Yugito tilted her head to the side as Gai deflated, wondering if there was some better option out there than just waiting for the typhoon out there to pass.

“Maybe,” she paused in thought, before slapping her hands together with a grin, “What if we didn’t do it all at once? Slow and steady rather than a culmination of our strengths.”

“Evaporation also tends to cool things down,” Kakashi noted, putting away his book and facing them all head on, “We’d just need to be careful not to turn it into steam.”

“So...” Gai trailed off, looking at all three of them in wonder, “was my idea a good one?”

Yugito chuckled at that and gave a tiny nod of approval, “Much better than letting the town get ripped to shreds.”

“Thank you,” Fusasaki spoke up, looking visibly stunned by all of them, “for caring so much.”

“Not a problem!” Gai cheered on, grinning boisterously from ear to ear.

The girl blushed and looked away before taking a step away to retrieve papers from a nearby desk, “I...I am not my father but I’ve watched him do this sort of work as a contractor for years. Perhaps we both be able to assist each other here and get business out of the way.”

“I’d prefer that,” Tobio said before glancing up to meet Kakashi’s eyes, “My dad is an impatient man.”

“Maa,” he said passively, “I’m not impatient—I’d wait for just about anyone who waits for me.”

“Well, this storm waits for no man,” Yugito commented, “might want to get business taken care of quickly so we can plan before the storm arrives.”

“Yes,” Tobio said happily, “business!”

* * *

“Ahh,” Yugito breathed out in the privacy of one of the women’s restrooms, rubbing at her aching jaw, “landed a bit too hard there, didn’t I?”

She grimaced as she looked into the mirror and noticed her pale complexion and lackluster appearance before noticing something much more important.

“Had fun there?” Kakashi asked and she released a bitter huff of air before turning to face him.

“You had that planned didn’t you?” she demanded to know, crossing her arms as she gave him her fiercest glare, “You told me to go there purposely just _knowing_ there was water damage in the roofs.”

His face was still covered but she knew that underneath his mask, there was a smile. His eyes matched her vehemence with a mischievous glint that gave her all the confirmation that she needed.

“So you were willing to put the mission in jeopardy just for a laugh?” she accused and he stood up straighter for it.

“I happened to already have sensed the storm and knew for a fact there was no enemy lying in wait.”

Yugito shook her head, and set her hand onto her hip before pointing at him, “Liar! Gai-san looked completely surprised to see her.”

“Oh? You saw that?” he questioned and she knew exactly where this was leading.

“Yes,” she admitted bitterly, “the vantage point wouldn’t have been so bad had the floor not given way.”

“I thought that would be the case,” he murmured, slowly making his way to her.

It felt much longer than it took to close the distance between them and when his hand touched her bleeding jaw, there seemed to be another flash of—of _something_ there in his gaze. She couldn’t read it though as it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

“You’re paying for my medical bills,” she told him, injecting as much humor as she could in the statement and trying fiercely not to acknowledge what she was actually feeling at all.

“Maa, maa, perhaps if I took care of your injuries it wouldn’t be a problem?” he wondered and she didn’t know why but she felt her cheeks heat.

Yugito tried to take a step back but was instead pushed against the sink behind her. She had nowhere to go without bodily harming him and while she was plenty willing to do it, she just couldn’t move. She was stuck beneath his gaze, suddenly unable to think about anything other than the way he was looking at her.

Kakashi brought his fingers to his mask and pulled it down slowly, revealing that wonderful smile of his.

Yugito sucked in a breath as soon as he leaned in to kiss her jaw before his tongue darted out to lick the wound.

Something reacted in her without her even realizing and she whimpered softly, bringing her hand to his chest. All as if she were going to push him away—she didn’t.

“Where else are you hurt?” he asked and she didn’t even know what to think.

Could she even tell him?

“Kakashi,” she said, preparing herself to finally pull away.

“Shall I look then?” he asked, hands already going down to the hem of her shirt she was wearing in place of her qipao that still needed to be laundered clean of blood.

“I recommend that you don’t,” she whispered, telling herself that any second she would finally leave and cast away the curiosity that burned in her.

_What will he do? What won’t he do?_

Yugito wanted—almost desperately—to test him.

But that didn’t seem to be the way things were going.

Kakashi lifted up her shirt and blaringly obvious were the marks of her injury, a trail of red that barely ended at the tip of her hip. It didn’t hurt much—it was less of an actual wound and more like scratches from a cat.

Still, he seemed stunned to see it and she wondered for a second if there was something she needed to be embarrassed about.

Then he breathed out a single word: “Beautiful.”

If she wasn’t already, she turned bright red and felt the tips of her hair stand on end. It was less like chills and more like zaps of heat running through her core and leading all in one direction.

“Stop teasing me,” she mumbled, unable to take the silence as he stared at her in wonder, “you saw this all before, didn’t you?”

“It’s my hearing, not my sight, that’s better,” he told her hastily, “it was too dark to actually appreciate the view.”

“You’re a cruel man,” she told him, setting her hands on his shoulders as he went to his knees, “Weren’t we not going to do this?”

At that, Kakashi went silent for a moment and met her gaze.

Unsure of what was even going on in his head, it wasn’t until he grinned that a sense of relief filled her. She wasn’t sure why exactly—then he spoke.

“I’m only treating your wounds,” he said as innocently as one could be.

“So cruel,” she whispered but couldn’t help but lean into his touch.

She looked into his eye, something within her couldn’t let whatever was going on continue. Yugito slipped through his hold on her and fell to her knees in front of him. They were as close as they’d ever been to each other while comforting, it was all at once strange and terrifying.

“This isn’t like you,” she murmured, slowly lifting his mask up.

His expression changed yet was too hard to decipher.

 _I got too serious, too fast_ , she realized.

What was once a humorous relationship was now only crumbling in front of them. It was getting harder to pick up the pieces of it and she was certain there was still no worth or value to doing it.

She liked him—at times, she even loved him—and yet she knew that nothing could come from it. They were from different pasts, caught at the end of spectrums that were never meant to touch. A future that could never be ensured, and a present she didn’t know if she wanted to endure.

But all of that was so small when she thought of him. Simply in the back of her mind and not so world-ending.

Yugito rested her hand against his cloth covered cheek and rested her forehead on his shoulder. She could hear him breathing so softly, not saying a word to her.

She wanted him to, wanted to hear what was in _his_ head.

Then, very quietly, he finally did speak.

“Sometimes I feel like a different person with you.”

“A bad different?” she wondered, looking up.

He blinked, taken off guard but very slowly, he gave a helpless shake of the head, “I find it difficult to be honest with people. But you never seem to be so afraid of it and because of that, something in me responds. I don’t know why. It...” he trailed off, seeming at a loss for words.

“You seem plenty honest with me,” she noted, unsure what she was actually hearing from him.

“That’s what I mean,” he told her with a sigh, “it frustrates me but I want to...”

Kakashi looked away and Yugito was forced to blink.

“Go on,” she softly demanded, impatient to hear his words.

At that, he sighed and gave her a look to match her own.

Yugito didn’t falter.

So finally he did, laughing a little bit to himself when he finally looked away.

“I want to give more of myself to you,” he said, in a tone that attempted to keep it light but spectacularly failed when he self-consciously lifted his hands to his already covered face.

“Oh my god,” Yugito breathed out, now furiously blushing as she looked anywhere but at him. She went back into hiding her face in the crook of his neck, shaking with the laughter that suddenly bubbled up within her.

“I’m so confused,” he admitted, hands reaching around her waist and fisting in her already loose hair.

“Why?” she asked, though she mirrored the emotion.

“I think a part of me sees you as a way to escape what is reality. Is that cruel?”

“No,” she whispered, “we all want to escape from something.”

“But it’s still frustrating,” he continued with a sigh, “you also represent what I’m trying to escape _from_.”

“Maybe you feel that way because you need to face these things instead of running away from it all the time,” she said,  more talking to herself than him.

Yugito expected some sort of backlash, something in him to tighten and he would simply let go of her.

Instead, he tugged her closer into his arms until she laid on top of him on the bathroom floor.

“So honest,” he whispered to her, sounding half-amazed.

“Not all the time,” she responded, rising up from him and blowing out a breath as she looked down at him. “Otherwise I’d be talking about how weird you are all the time.”

“Me? Weird?” Kakashi dubiously repeated, raising a brow as he regarded her, “Have you looked in the mirror?”

“Then you might as well be a mirror because you’re just as strange,” Yugito shot back with, shifting her hips over his until she hung a few inches above him.

“And where are your examples of this?” he asked, nonplussed.

“Right now, obviously,” Yugito huffed out, very nearly slamming her hand against the tile, “you’re the one who has us arguing on the bathroom floor after a failed attempt at—at _something_ and acting as you find _me_ even a little bit interesting to speak to!”

“You’re someone who knows both the past and the future of people you’ve never even met. Of _course_ , you’re interesting to speak to,” he stated bluntly. Then he looked away and added, “It also helps that you tell nice stories.”

She couldn’t help but redden at that and realized then that she needed to leave if she were to keep even the smallest bit of her sanity intact.

Yugito made the moves to get up but was promptly stopped when he reached up and kissed her. She hadn’t even seen him take off his mask but there he was again, surprising her just as her will gave out and she slumped into the kiss.

Kakashi pulled away too soon and looked very satisfied all the while.

“If you keep showing me your face like that, it’s going to lose its effect,” she said defensively.

His response was steadfast, “Wrong.”

Yugito sighed and this time when she went to get up, he didn’t stop her.

“I hate that you’re right,” she muttered, turning to the real mirror and attempting to fix what she could of her hair and giving up on the idea of makeup.

“You don’t need to improve what’s already perfect,” Kakashi said as he rose up from behind her. For the barest of a second, she caught a glimpse of a blush on his cheeks before he covered himself once more.

“You read too many novels,” she told him before letting herself laugh at the notion.

“True, it was in a novel that Jiraiya wrote.”

“Tch, cheap bastard,” she muttered before turning to him, hand on her hip, “At least be original!”

“I’d like to see you try first,” he said pointedly, leaving her unable to say anything else as she struggled to think of a reply.

Finally, before she remained silent too long and looked like an idiot, she replied with a very weak, “See you outside.”

With a knowing look in his eyes, he nodded and walked out calmly.

* * *

Gai looked on at the oncoming furious waves and had only one thing to say, “The power of youth will always persevere!”

“Good luck,” Fusasaki said sweetly, as beautiful as a cosmos flower in the spring.

“Thank you for such kind and powerful words!” Gai said happily, getting increasingly energized at the prospect at their task at hand.

His friends looked doubtfully towards each other but he felt none of it. He knew only one thing; they would save the village and finally be able to go home! Oh, how he missed the beauty of his homeland! The Land of Lightning was an interesting place to see, yes, but nothing quite could match up with Konohagakure.

Still, he had to admit, he'd never seen something so spectacular as what was in front of him.

The water in front of him was fierce and flowing.  Seeing it was enough to feel as though he'd seen something remarkable—something very few got to see. He was going to fight against this. Very few people dared to fight against nature, but Gai was not one to shirk his duty to defend the good people from catastrophe. Something within him was increasingly excited at the chance.

Kakashi looked to him with a knowing glance.

“Happy?” he asked.

Gai grinned back at him, “Only after we’ve achieved victory!”

“Well you better hurry up,” Tobio whined, looking apprehensively at the water and very slowly backing towards the door of the facility.

Gai only chuckled at that and lifted his fist to the sky, “Have a little faith!”

“He’s right,” Yugito said, looking a little green as she regarded the incoming water, “we better hurry.”

“You okay?” Kakashi asked, looking uncharacteristically concerned.

Gai blinked in surprise.

She didn’t seem to notice however. Instead, she kept facing forward as if she hadn’t even heard.

At least that’s what Gai thought until she finally reached out and placed her fingers in the hand of his silver-haired best friend. It was an odd moment, a weird image that he thought he would never see.

What little of it could be seen, Kakashi’s expression softened.

“It’s embarrassing but water like this has always terrified me,” she admitted quietly before realizing where her hand was. Her face reddened and it was then that Gai could truly see what Kakashi could find so interesting in her.

She was a flower that bloomed openly, shy all the while.

Gai simply couldn’t see a better pick for his best friend.

Suddenly, the green-clad shinobi was overwhelmed with emotion.

He’d always been so sure that Kakashi would end up a bitter and lonely old man. It was as if seeing a spark of hope be lit right in front of him.

Then Yugito ripped her hand away and something inside Gai broke.

He turned away from the sight, praying his tears would not show before regaining as much of his former composure as he could. It was with a heavy heart that he looked back towards them and attempted a laugh.

It was at that exact moment that the first rush of water hit shore.

The windows, having been so determined to hold out against the storm, broke with the weight of the rain and wind against it.

“Let’s head out then!” Yugito shouted,  deciding to take the new passage as she launched herself out of the building.

Gai followed quickly after, regaining his enthusiasm of earlier.

That is, until an even bigger wave splashed into them and sent even him onto his back.

The green-clad shinobi took pause as he struggled to move out of the water, thoroughly shocked at the vehemence of the storm.

He had been experienced harsh winds before, had been soaked head to toe on hot days spent at Konoha lakes, had even endured many earthquakes and tornadoes in the past. But despite most of the day having been spent with heavy rain and wind slapping against the building, he’d was not prepared for something quite as powerful as what was in front of them.

He looked up to see Kakashi holding onto Yugito, who was beginning to outright panic as she clawed the air and struggled to leave the silver-haired nin’s hold.

It was then that Gai’s stomach sank and he realized something—fighting a storm was not the best idea.

But he was never a quitter.

“Regroup!” he yelled out as loudly as he possibly could in his booming voice and fled towards the safety of the still standing building a bit away.

He wasn’t sure if they were following, but he chanced it as he leapt back through the broken window and saw the wide-eyed Fusasaki and the unimpressed gaze of Tobio.

Thankfully, seconds later, he heard the soft comforting murmurs from Kakashi and the even softer sobs from Yugito as the two of them made their way safely inside. Itachi came into view a little after them, eyes on Yugito with more concern than he’d ever seen before from an Uchiha.

“Is she okay?” Fusasaki asked quietly and it was then that Yugito looked up, even paler than before and shaking as she clung to Kakashi.

“I will be,” she answered, attempting to stand straighter but failing as her legs finally gave out. In bitter frustration, she hit her thighs with as much strength as it looked she could muster before muttering out, “I don’t know what...”

Kakashi kneeled beside her, gaze soft as he used his fingers to clear her hair from her face and to stroke her cheek.

It was a very private moment and in it, Gai couldn’t look away.

“I’m sorry,” she told them, “I don’t know why I’m so afraid,” she admitted, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

“It’s okay, you can stay here and make sure Tobio and Fusasaki are safe from the storm,” Kakashi told her in a tone Gai had never before heard from him.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated.

“My rival in life is correct! The storm is fiercer than expected,” he told the room, “the civilians must be kept safe at all costs! The rest of us can take of this storm no problem!”

Yugito looked like she wanted to argue but as her gaze turned back to look at the water, her dark eyes turning even darker. In the end, her shoulders slumped inward as she gave a weak nod.

Kakashi helped her up and the moment it looked as if she could stand on her own, he let go. There was a notable breath of relief in the room when she held herself up, Itachi and Kakashi meeting each other’s eyes in mutual understanding that Gai felt a little left out of.

Either way, he turned to Itachi, “You’re going to have to do your role in cooling down the evaporated water with a water release justu and also Yugito’s role in adding the heat alongside me.”

“I’ll be setting up trenches with earth release to help alleviate for any chances of water slipping through then,” Kakashi said, holding his hand up.

Gai twitched, “You don’t have the biggest reserves to do something like that.”

“I think I can help with that,” Yugito said, voice still soft.

“You have an earth technique?” Itachi questioned, looking more interested.

She shook her head, “No but I have something I’ve been working on with Matatabi-san.”

“And that is?” Kakashi asked with a lifted brow.

Yugito went towards him and placed her hands in his before both of their bodies grew to be engulfed in blue chakra. Gai tried not to be alarmed and relaxed seconds later when he realized what was going on.

Yugito let go and the chakra seeped into Kakashi, who shivered in response.

“Woah,” he said.

“A chakra transfer technique. I’ve only ever heard about it being possible, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to master,” Itachi murmured, new interest in his eyes as he looked at Yugito, “Care to teach it to me later?”

“Later,” she firmly agreed before looking at Gai, “You guys better get going then.”

“Of course!” he shouted exuberantly now that she was looking in better spirits.

“We’ll be back soon,” Kakashi said, looking at Yugito before turning away as the three of them headed out.

* * *

Soon just wasn’t soon enough.

“You can stop pacing now, it seems like the worst of the storm has passed,” Tobio said in his usual know-it-all tone. Sometimes she found it cute, other times...not so much.

“I’m getting in my exercise,” Yugito responded.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Fusasaki spoke up, a sweet girl who had long since figured out that Tobio was the real genius. She hadn’t been angry at the deception, instead letting Yugito know that if needed, they could have a place to stay at her father’s house as payment for saving the town. It would only be for the night and already Yugito wondered if they would need to somehow extend their stay in the case of Kakashi coming back completely immobile or Itachi with even more injuries than his internal ones.

Not for the first time, she cursed herself for being so afraid.

She’d faced down many things in her life—terrifyingly painful things that she would never wish upon her worst enemy and yet she couldn’t even face some _stupid_ storm because it knocked her down.

Yugito flinched, something about it just felt too...close to something inside of her.

Maybe it was a fear of Matatabi’s and not her own, at least she hoped that was the case. Yet she doubted it, there was an underlying _sense_ of something she would really rather leave alone. So she did—even when it kept popping up in her head.

She distracted it with thoughts of Kakashi and Itachi, two of the best people she had ever known. It comforted her to focus and feel her love for them. Scary things couldn’t be so scary if she wasn’t alone, right?

“Hey,” Fusasaki tried again as soon as Yugito inadvertently ignored her, “sit down. I want to ask you something.”

That made her pause and for a second she contemplated ignoring her again but...

Yugito sat down and dragged her knees to her chin before looking at the girl expectantly.

“Something to take your mind off things, girl talk!” Fusasaki said cheerfully and with a slight blush to her face, “I’ll ask a question first, can you tell me more about that green shinobi? I never got his real name and I’ve been thinking he’s actually my type.”

 _Ok, that’s one way to keep me sane_ , Yugito noted. It was a positive shock indeed.

For a moment, she had to wonder what to say or even how to phrase things—she’d never been involved with _girl talk_ before. At least not with a civilian. It was a welcome challenge, however.

“You should get him to tell you his name,” she told her, “it’s a very fitting one that is better said when you’re properly introducing yourselves to each other.”

“True,” Fusasaki said happily before blinking at Yugito, “Did you want to ask a question before I ask my next one?”

“Oh my _goooooood_ ,” Tobio said from the corner, rolling on his back as he clearly suffered from the topic change. Then, huffing out a sigh, he sat up and looked at Yugito pointedly, “It’s going to be about Wolf, isn’t it?”

Yugito’s cheeks were not slow to heat up as she shamefully placed her face in her hands. Then she released a low groan.

“We don’t have to talk about him, if you don’t want,” Fusasaki told her politely.

“No, I must,” Yugito muttered before finally looking up and saying it, “We’ve only known each other for around two weeks and I think I’m in love with him. Correction, I _know_ I’m in love with him.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” Fusasaki helpfully told her, “it’s a sign of good chemistry.”

“Or of idiocy,” Tobio added, all-knowingly and with a sage nod.

“I agree, it’s stupid,” Yugito blurted out, flinging her arms up in fed up exasperation, “Love is stupid! Even me saying that is stupid because it doesn’t change a thing!”

“It seemed he liked you back,” Fusasaki noted, “at least in the way he was caring for you. He doesn’t seem like the time to do that for just anybody.”

“It doesn’t matter if he likes me back,” Yugito said with a defeated sigh as she dropped her forehead to her knees.

“Why not?” she asked, sounding surprised.

“Because Wolf is a leaf and Cat is a cloud,” Tobio answered cryptically though anyone with a brain could figure out what it meant.

“Oh,” Fusasaki breathed out softly, apparently having understood , “how tragic.”

“You don’t even know the half of it,” Yugito muttered in despair before lifting her head up and looking to the civilian desperately, “Which brings me to my question. How do I get over him?”

The girl held up her hands helplessly, “Don’t ask me. I’ve never even been in love before!”

Yugito looked to Tobio then, who throw his hands up in the air and emphatically stated, “For the last time, woman, I’m eight!”

At that, she sniffed delicately, “Then my question goes unanswered. Fusa-chan, ask your next one.”

“Oh, uh, okay,” Fusasaki said hesitantly before brightening up and asking, “So is Shu-san a leaf too?”

“Yes,” Yugito answered softly, “go ahead and ask me anything you want now, since I have nothing else.”

She knew she sounded childish as she said it but forsaken by her inability to stop feeling emotion, she didn’t bother trying to sound like a better person than she was.

“Then, my turn!” Tobio said to the room, looking flustered, “Not a question, it’s a change of subject. Let’s talk about trains!”

Fusasaki laughed, “You’re just like my father. I know he’d find you quite charming.”

If possible, his face got even redder in presumed embarrassment before groaning and crossing his arms over his stomach. He said nothing after that, simply turning away and seeming determined not to speak up.

Yugito gave his silence a few minutes, tops.

But she didn’t care to time it before helping herself up and blinking upon hearing what sounded lik glass cracking beneath footsteps. It took only a few seconds later for three figures to step around and come into view and as it happened, she released a breath even as anxiety continued to swarm through her.

She glanced in Kakashi’s direction but proved stronger than her instinct to check on him as another side of her called out more insistently. Itachi looked close to passing out with deep bags beneath his eyes and as she rushed forward, he fell into her arms.

Yugito swept him off his feet, cradling him close to her as she tried not to have a mental breakdown. Instead she focused on the positives. She didn’t have to wait for them anymore and disaster had been averted even if she hadn’t done anything herself to help.

Which somehow made her feel even worse as she continued to berate herself for having been so worthless earlier.

“Is it an emergency?” Fusasaki asked, coming closer and with concern in her gaze.

Itachi had already passed out but upon further assessment of him, Yugito shook her head, “He’s tired, is all. A night of rest and that doctor’s visit should be just what he needs.”

“Then we should hurry to Fusasaki-san’s house,” Tobio piped up, having already stood up and gesturing emphatically towards the door.

“Of course,” the brunette agreed, and held up the paperwork they had filled out earlier, “we can also get him to sign this and everything will be cleared for production.”

“Let’s hurry then,” Kakashi spoke up, sounding just as tired as Yugito suddenly felt.

“It’s a bit of a journey,” Fusasaki admitted, “a few miles. You guys sure you can make it?”

The boys said nothing but it was Gai who took action first, coming around the side of Kakashi and—

Yugito blinked, “Did you just...knock him out?”

Gai grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up, “Only for the meantime! It’s that or leave him to get lost in the mist outside!”

“Okay,” she muttered, looking at the bane of her current existence fall into another man’s arm and swiftly be brought into a cradle hold similar to how she held Itachi. She had to admit to herself that she was only _slightly_ jealous.

In her defense, it wasn’t only her who was lamenting the situation.

Fusasaki was eyeing Gai as if he’d just committed a grave sin against her.

Yugito chuckled to herself lowly before looking to Tobio and saying, “Hop on my back, it’ll be faster than walking.”

“Great idea, Yugito-chan!” Gai declared, looking to the brunette in their midst, “Fusasaki-chan, would you care to hop on my back?”

Fusasaki shot Yugito a grateful look before smiling and nodding, “First, as soon as we get out of here, head north and keep on until you notice a red barn and a well beside it. Turn right and it’ll be the first house past the lake.”

“Easy enough,” Yugito said, already on her way out the facility, “See you guys there!”

* * *

Both Kakashi and Itachi were still out cold by the time dinner rolled around, leaving there to be a bit of awkward silence around Yugito who couldn’t think of much else beside them.

So it was with a heavy heart that she decided to step out to enjoy the hard efforts of her boys and feel the mist on her skin before it dispersed. It was a rare thing, for there to be mist. At times, the Land of Lightning had a sort of cloying humidity about it but never enough to create mist after a rainy day. It was simply far too hot for it.

Still, she couldn’t shake the melancholic air that she sank herself deeper into any time that she reminded herself of the events of the day. The fear, the ball of anxiety in her gut, they were both still there inside of her.

Which made it incredibly difficult to actually find herself enjoying the rare weather.

Then the floorboard creaked and she snapped to attention and looked to see a familiar yet masked face coming closer.

Yugito didn’t know what to say and as he came closer, she scrambled for a line.

“It was nice of them to let us stay the night,” Yugito said nervously as Kakashi took a seat beside her on the engawa, letting his feet dust over the trimmed grass below alongside hers.

“Hn.”

“It will be good if Itachi’s visit to the doctor goes well,” she continued, continuing to have no idea what to say to him.

“Hn,” he intoned once more.

“Tired?” she asked and was answered by his head coming to rest on her shoulder, his warm breath dusting across her collarbone. Instinctively, she reached for his hand and entwined their fingers together with a small prayer to the sky that he wouldn’t pull away.

He didn’t.

Rather, his thumb began to draw circles on the inside of her palm, sending unexpected shivers up her arm. More and more it was looking as if she was sensitive to simply _him_. It seemed that no matter what, he would be able to incite a reaction from her.

“I wish I could forget,” she said so softly, she almost prayed he didn’t hear her.

But he did and just as softly, he whispered, “Forgetting never helps.”

“I wish that it did,” she retorted, using her free hand to wipe at any stupid tears that dared to escape.

“I don’t want to forget,” Kakashi murmured, “not anymore at least.”

“Why is that?” she wondered.

He sighed, “I don’t know. Instead, I just want to sleep.”

“Then go back to bed.”

“Not without you.”

Yugito paused at that and felt her body stiffen. Then, with the defeatist attitude she had all day, she relaxed.

 _I can’t help it_ , she thought, feeling an ache in her bones and chest.

 **Don’t try to**. **It’s what keeps your kind ever so entertaining** , Matatabi noted, and the cat’s voice felt good to hear after so long. Like hearing a song that reminded her of home.

 _Where were you?_ Yugito couldn’t help but ask, unsure if she would even get an answer.

 **Communicating with a few siblings of mine. Or trying to in some cases,** the tailed beast admitted but seemed reluctant to say who before going on to say, **Go to sleep. It may be a while before you can enjoy yourself like this again.**

Yugito blew out a breath and found herself nodding, despite the chill that the cryptic message left her with.

“Okay,” she told him, “but only to sleep.”

“I don’t have the energy for anything else,” the silver-haired shinobi informed her before struggling to stand up.

“Hold on,” she muttered, getting up before offering her shoulder for support.

Kakashi looked reluctantly put took her offer as the two of them made their way to his still warm bedsheets.

Gracelessly, the tumbled into them and she wasted no time in coming to cling to him. Normally she would be reluctant to, normally she’d even feel shy about it—but this wasn’t normally.

Yugito sank herself even further into his warmth and the scent of him.

It felt like only moments later that she actually fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

 ****The next morning, Yugito expected to wake up alone.

Instead, she found herself surprised to find that both Tobio and Itachi had managed to get their futons into the same room and were passed out cold only a few inches away. Tobio was gently snoring and had his foot hanging over Itachi’s chest.

At the sight, Yugito rubbed at her eyes before struggling to disengage from the comforting warmth beside her. Instead, she was even more surprised when Kakashi dragged her beneath the blankets and leaned closer in to rest his forehead against hers.

She met both of his eyes in muted shock.

“Good morning,” he told her with a scratchy voice that informed her that he might actually be sick.

“Are you feeling okay?” she asked, wary about speaking too loud in case the boys woke up.

“It doesn’t matter, we’re still leaving today.”

“After Itachi gets treated and, now you too.”

“Of course,” he allowed, pulling back the covers and sitting up.

Then came the third surprise.

Somehow, his hair was even crazier than the last time they’d slept together. Every end seemed to stand on end, infused with some sort of energy.

Kakashi sniffed before catching where she was looking at and giving a weak shrug, “Happens when I’m sick for some reason.”

At that, Yugito chuckled and grinned, “It’s cute.”

“I’m sure you meant to say sexy. It’s okay, I forgive you the mistake.”

“Maybe if there weren’t kids in the room,” she told him and he blinked at her in surprise before looking over her and noting the still sleeping forms close by.

“Didn’t realize,” he muttered before meeting her eyes again, “Forget I said that then.”

“Forgetting never helps,” she reminded him with a grin before deciding to get up and stretch.

Kakashi followed after her before tugging the collar of her shirt and leading her out of the room, “Don’t do that. First food, then we’re getting the boys up, and then they’re getting a meal on the go before we head off to the clinic.”

“Yes, sir,” she playfully said, bumping her hip against his, “But only if you promise to get a check up when Itachi goes.”

“I’ll be fine with some food, it’s just a cold after all.”

She eyed him doubtfully.

“Food,” he reminded her and with a sigh, she gave up convincing him otherwise.

* * *

When all was said and done with his appointment, a horror he was already trying to repress, Itachi was more than ready to head back out onto the road and see their client home. He even wanted to make the trip faster than before, feeling much better than he had in a long while. It didn’t even matter that he was still nearly running on empty from having put so much chakra into fighting the typhoon, he justed wanted to go already.

After that, home.

He sighed longingly at the thought and was already thinking of which of his pile of unread books would he read first by the time they were actually done paying for the healing session.

“Ugh, he was so expensive,” Yugito whined beside him and for a moment, Itachi felt at ease.

It felt like the early days of their relationship, where he’d pick the most expensive item on the menu at restaurants and get to see her wholly hilarious reaction. Not for the first time, he wished he could go back to that simple time in their lives.

“Thank you for paying,” he said quietly and she looked up with a smile.

“It’s not a problem. I’m happy to do it,” she told him and the slight blush dusting her cheeks told him that the feeling was genuine.

“Why?” he wondered.

“Because it makes me feel more like we’re family and not just friends or roommates,” she explained and Itachi couldn’t help the way that his lips twitched at the sentiment.

In the end, he didn’t know how to respond to that and said nothing instead as he spotted Tobio in the distance dragging Gai by the sleeve and being followed by the uninterested Kakashi.

“We got supplies for the return trip,” Tobio announced, giving context to the bags that Gai was clutching to his chest.

“Good,” Yugito said, reaching out a hand to ruffle the eight year old’s hair. Just a bit, it made Itachi feel almost...uncomfortable and out of place. He was too tall for that now.

“So, is everyone ready to go?” Tobio asked, looking at Itachi and eyeing him for signs of illness.

“Well,” Gai started, looking almost pained as he said it, “we would be but—”

“We got a message,” Kakashi interjected, “orders to return to Konoha immediately.”

Itachi felt the same jolt as ever whenever his homeland was mentioned. But unexpectedly, the sense of longing did not come with it this time.

Instead, he looked to Yugito and found her wide-eyed at the news.

“That’s...unexpected,” she said softly before looking away from them as she smiled, “but orders are orders. Itachi and I will be able to get Tobio-kun home safely without you two.”

“Thank you for understanding,” Kakashi said to her.

Itachi wasn’t sure, but he thought perhaps that was his way of saying goodbye.

Still, it made her expression soften before she took into her arms the bags from Gai.

Yugito nodded, “Of course.”

* * *

 

They matched their time on the trip back to Tobio’s grand estate. It had been a time Itachi had never been happier to see end, if only to escape the dim silence that followed them to the front doors. Yet, it was with a softly whispered goodbye that Yugito set Tobio down. She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead, ruffling his hair before signing for Itachi to be quick in his farewell.

“I’ll write you letters,” Tobio said stubbornly, surprising Itachi.

“You will?” he asked, unable to hide his doubt.

“Yugito-nee-san gave me your address,” he explained with a cheeky smile, “You said we’ll be writing a book together! I’m holding you to it!”

“That would be...” Itachi trailed off, looking for the word as he gazed at the boy who made him think so much of his own little brother. Finally, he began again, “That would be nice. Please do.”

If even possible, the journey home was somehow absent of sound.

Yugito simply wasn’t in the mood to tell stories.

* * *

“Finally,” Yugito breathed out, setting her bags down on the couch before promptly heading to the curtains to let in some of the waning sunlight.

“Glad to be home?” Itachi asked with a subtle humor in his tone.

She turned her head to look back at him to see him set his own bags down beside hers before draping himself over the second couch.

“Tired?” she asked, avoiding his question as she came to kneel on the floor. Her hands were already touching his forehead, trying hard not to show her concern.

He peeked open an eye, a slight smile on his lips at seeing her face, “You got a tan while we were out.”

(He liked to dodge subjects just as much it seemed.)

“You still look as pale as always,” she returned, running her fingers through his bangs, “Say, ever wonder how we’d look with our hair cut short?”

“More recently, yes,” he replied, reaching out a hand to touch her own hair.

They both turned silent, meeting each other’s eyes.

“I think you’d look more your age,” she said softly.

“I think you’d look my age too,” he said with a wry smile curling on his lips.

“Are you kidding?” she asked, laughing, “Maybe I’d look more professional.”

Yugito pulled away from Itachi and took her hair from it’s holding, laying her light blonde hair in front of her. Just as she had tanned, her hair had turned a few shades lighter as well. It was odd—she’d spent most of her life growing it out, feeling each inch bring another year for her, but something felt off inside her.

It would be a sad thing to see it go.

She was silent for a minute, eyes on her hair and on one more thing—the memories.

At first, she had never cared for the length of her hair. Her focus had been on surviving first, on impressing those that would eventually lead her to more freedom. So for the first years of her life, she hadn’t thought much of her physical appearance.

Not until him—the man she could still see vividly smiling at her, fingers outstretched to ruffle her bangs.

“Your hair matches well with this sunlight, kid. Never can quite see a cat with coat like yours, do you?” he’d said to her.

It was such a small thing, yet somehow she recalled it vividly.

He’d probably meant it more as a joke than anything else. It was such a weird compliment, if one considered it as one. He most likely had never known it would still have far reaching effects on her to this day.

After all, it was only then did she start to treat her hair like a treasure.

Yugito stroked the length of it one last time, amazed with how much it had really grown. After a while, it was something you didn’t really notice until the time made it right.

“You’d still look beautiful,” Itachi said finally, his voice barely above a murmur.

She looked up, met his thoughtful gaze and felt instinctively what she had to do next.

Bracing herself, she lengthened the tip of her claws and hacked off as much as she could gather in her hands.

There was no going back now.

Oddly enough, the image in her head as she got to cutting down the rest was not the man who had raised her but instead something much more surprising to her.

It was of a silver-haired man, heterochromatic eyes staring down at her in a room filled with sunlight. There was sunlight streaming through a window and—and there was the sound of birds. Her eyes were just barely open, she’d just woken up and she felt the oddest sensation of her hair being pulled on.

Very quietly, he was running his fingers through the tangles of her hair with an expression that looked so solemn and sedate. There was no energy to be seen in him, his shoulders slumped and his skin particularly pale.

He wasn’t smiling that blissful smile of his, she’d noticed, but...the longer she looked, the more she saw.

Kakashi Hatake was remarkably at ease in front of her. Regardless of the strain in him and obvious stress he was under, it looked almost as if he’d found a moment of reprieve. Of silence away from sound.

It was then that his slumped shoulders began to look more as if he were relaxing, lazy as he methodically stroked her hair without a critical thought.

He looked beautiful and all at once, she had felt the urge to reach up and kiss him.

But it never came to be.

He’d noticed her watching soon after and seconds later, he completely washed away his honest self with a smile. It was one that suddenly hurt to see.

This was the morning of when they’d first slept together.

Yugito cut off another lock of hair and forced herself to breathe.

With another piece in hand, there was another image there, caught in her thoughts the same way her hair caught the sun. This time it was still—just his expression. Their farewell. She hadn’t been able to tell what he was feeling then, and couldn’t even begin to fathom it. Frankly, she didn’t even know why she cared so much to figure it out.

They’d only known each other briefly. It wasn’t as if they _really_ knew each other.

Honestly, he probably hadn’t even cared much for _her_. He’d obviously been hurt by...by what she told him. His friend. It wasn’t that he liked her...it was that he was using her to cope. He’d even admitted it to her and it all...

But then it had all turned out so horribly.

Yugito tried to stop that line of thought but it was a failure from the start.

She had to admit that it held more logic to it than the thought that _the_ Kakashi Hatake had a thing for her too. In the end, she’d just be another face in a long line of girls. An interesting story to think about, attempting to romance a girl from Kumo.

Entertaining, wasn’t she?

She cut a little too high at the thought of it, leaving the strands of hair to fall at her shoulder and newly shredded ends to fall limply through her fingers.

Yugito stared at her hands, wide-eyed.

She had sincerely not intended to cut it so short.

“Are you alright?” Itachi asked, and he had a finger at her cheeks, catching the tears that were suddenly slipping from her eyes.

“I made a mistake,” she told him, looking at the traces of her hair and realizing that she hadn’t been remembering the right person as she had cut.

Her hands began to feel foreign on her, the strands looking as if someone had simply hacked at her beloved hair as if it were a tree vine. Yugito went still, inasmuch as she could be with her fingers shaking as they were.

“I made a mistake,” she repeated.

“It won’t be that bad,” he told her, looking more alarmed by the second.

“No, no—” _I fell in love_ , “—I cut it too short,” she whispered to him, “it’ll all be gone. Everything. I don’t want to give it up yet. I want to keep it for just a little longer, don’t you understand?”

The realization hit her then. It was broken, something in her was broken now. Her heart, her spirit, whatever it was—it was broken again.

“Yugito,” Itachi whispered, slipping off the couch to kneel besides her, arms going around her shoulders as he whispered in her ear, “it can grow back still. You can always grow it back.”

“I don’t know,” she answered, eyes locked on the hands that were not her own, “but will it ever be the same?”

“I think so,” he said to her, holding her so closely that it hurt to breathe.

It was him who snapped her from her thoughts. It felt like a splash of water had hit her in the face and for that, she was thankful. She retracted her nails and touched the arm around her neck.

“Thank you,” she whispered, “thank you.”

“I’m here still,” he told her fiercely, “he doesn’t matter anymore. I’m still here with you.”

“I know,” Yugito said, suddenly laughing at how dramatic she had been acting, “I’m sorry.”

Itachi pulled away then, turning his face away before she could get a good look at his face—she thought for a second she saw tears there—and stood to face the window.

“Stay here, I’ll go get the scissors,” he told her, “I’ll get it as even as I can and you can get someone to fix it up for you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she murmured softly before clearing her throat, shaking her head of the darker thoughts creeping in, “and you get your haircut tomorrow too! I want to see you shaved bald!”

“Not happening,” he insisted stubbornly, poking his head out of the bathroom door before disappearing once more and coming out seconds later with the scissors in hand.

“Be gentle,” she told him.

He simply snorted and set to work.

* * *

  **Ten-Thousand Raindrops - End**


	21. One Who Tries to Escape

**One Who Tries to Escape**

* * *

His fingers ran through her hair, sliding down her chin before his lips brushed her left cheek. Yugito couldn’t help but shiver, fumbling to grab the edges of the bed sheets before shuddering against his weight.

She couldn’t breathe.

“It’s not bad?” he murmured, his breath cascading over her face while smelling of mint and chocolate.

Yugito couldn’t speak, clamping her teeth shut tight to hold in the moans that wanted to escape her. It was horrible the way he was touching her, making her unable to move away or even attempt to.

But she couldn’t bring herself to shake her head—she nodded instead.

“I’m glad,” he murmured by her ear, voice low and sending even more shivers down her spine. Somehow, her face grew even hotter but the worst part was the energy in her arms and legs evaporating. She was shaking, amazed and terrified all at once.

Then his hand, placed delicately underneath the band of her underwear, began to move.

Yugito couldn’t hold it in—she reached over and held him close against her before quietly releasing a gust of hot breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding in. Following after that was a moan that she attempted to muffle against her palm.

“Don’t hide from me,” he whispered.

“Don’t—” her breath hitched, “don’t...”

“Ah?” his hand paused, “What do you want me to do?”

“Kaka—Kakashi,” she moaned weakly against him, reaching both of her arms over to wrap around him, “Don’t—!”

Then she hit the floor of her bedroom, clinging to her pillow before being coldly shocked awake. One word was on the tip of her tongue.

“Stop,” she whispered to the nothingness in the dark before her.

* * *

It was no surprise that she was in a terrible mood, still attempting to recover from the madness she had just experienced just last night. Even worse was the sight she was looking at right in front of her.

“It’s not bad, is it?” Yugito asked for what seemed the hundredth time that day. Still, no matter the reply, she couldn’t help but tug at the edges of her hair more than a little bit self-conscious. The mirror told her she looked presentable but nothing could change the fact that she was not happy about it.

“You have a nice face,” Samui answered, blinking at her with cool blue eyes, “so it works.”

It would be nice if it was that simple—or maybe that was the crux of the matter?

Regardless, she just wanted her hair back.

“But, now I’ll look even more like Shī than I did before,” Yugito realized with an exasperated sigh.

“Huh, that’s true,” Samui seemed to smile at the thought, “that’ll make it weird when you confess to him.”

Yugito choked on her own spit before turning, face red in shock, “Confess!?”

Samui narrowed her eyes in thought as she regarded her coolly, “He’s the one you like, isn’t she?”

“What gave you the idea that I liked _anyone_?” Yugito wondered, feeling a bit faint at the prospect of anything romantic. Especially with one of the people she had once upon a time thought of as a brother. Nowadays, they spoke too little for her to think of him as such any more but the feeling still remained there.

“Isn’t that why you’ve been acting like this?” Samui questioned, looking confused as she ran her fingers through her bangs.

“Acting like what?” Yugito asked, unsure of what she meant as she began to rethink on her life choices.

“Just,” Samui paused in thought before shrugging, “different.”

Yugito narrowed her eyes, “Different how?”

The blonde made a face, “I don’t know. Just that you are.”

“Well, that’s helpful,” Yugito muttered, frowning one last time in front of the mirror before taking a step away to regard her blonde friend up close. “Do you think everyone else notices?”

“No,” Samui said, her tone confident.

Attempting to hide her surprise, she had to ask, “Why?”

“People just don’t know you well enough,” Samui answered, honest, “You’re always visiting people in the hospital, saying hello, but you never go past the pleasantries with most people. You’re like me in that sense.”

“I guess that’s true,” she whispered, thinking.

But she knew that even recognizing this wouldn’t change a thing. It was simple to put, Yugito just didn’t want more people than she could handle in her life. Along with that, she knew that if she was more honest with the populace at large, she could never feel comfortable. Opening up more with strangers was a terrifying thought.

She could count on one hand the amount of people she would give her secrets to keep.

Yugito was going to keep it that way.

Satisfied that not everyone could read her like a book, Yugito smiled.

“You’re still wrong though. I’m not in love with him, it’s someone very different.”

Samui’s brow lifted, “Who?”

“Maa, maa,” she lifted up her hands in defense, “I didn’t know girl-talk was something that we did.”

Her eyes narrowed, “That was before. This is now. I want to know.”

Yugito rolled her eyes at that, “It doesn’t matter. He probably hates Kumo. Nothing could work out with a person like that.”

Even if she knew Kumo would be overjoyed to know. Even if Ay would probably be cheering enthusiastically with Bi by his side, ready with a pen to sign off on the marriage certificate. Even if no one would care if she brought yet another infamous name to the village.

It didn’t change the fact that Konoha would still view it in a very different light.

So, it was best to give up—much like how she needed to give up on getting her hair to suddenly grow back to its former glory.

Best to think about one heartache and ignore the other.

“So he’s against all shinobi or just us? What’s his name? What work does he do? Someone you met recently?” Samui asked, edging onto her chair all the while. It was a strange sight to see, getting to witness her acting completely unlike herself. For that very reason alone, Yugito was suspicious.

She narrowed her eyes at the blonde, “Are you actually curious?”

Samui seemed to consider the question before shrugging, “I’m bored.”

At that, Yugito shook her head and lifted up her hands helplessly, “It’s not that interesting.”

Samui, seeming to understand the underlying tone of her voice, smiled as she changed the subject, “Are you taking a few days off or will you be going on another mission soon?”

“I don’t know,” Yugito sighed, suddenly tired, “probably, I’ll take a few days off.”

“You’ve never had a break before, I’m sure the Raikage would be fine with it. Don’t stress as much,” Samui told her, tone confident as she went to stand up from Yugito’s bed before patting her head. “I have to go, duty calls but don’t forget to take care of yourself. You always worry about everyone else, look after yourself for a change.”

Yugito nodded but didn’t fully comprehend what she was saying. Not even when she had left did she even acknowledge what she had said.

All she knew was that she was feeling more than a little bit guilty as she turned to look at herself in the mirror.

“Why can’t you just stop?” she asked her reflection, though she wasn’t entirely certain what she was referring to.

Of course, there was no answer. Not if she wanted to keep a shred of her dignity intact. Yet, for a moment of insanity, she thought there had been. Not voice, not felt, but seen. In her eyes and the set of her jaw, it looked almost as if she were saying no.

God, she hated herself.

* * *

Sasuke was confused.

Not just disorientated and lost on what to think—he was conflicted.

“You have to be a bit better than the others, that’s all,” his mother told him as the two of them folded his futon up to put into the closet. Sasuke didn’t say anything to that, only hoping that she would decide to go away soon. At least before she discovered the bag in his closet.

He really didn’t want her asking questions about it.

“Will you be home before dinner?” Mikoto asked, just as Sasuke clambered into his closet on the pretense that he was helping drag the futon into the open space. She made a face at him but he just shrugged.

“I want to stop by the library after school again. I was told they’ll be getting in new books today.”

“Right, good, okay,” Mikoto said, sighing as she ruffled his hair, “stay as long as you’d like but remember to take the main road. Your cousins will be watching it just in case you get hurt.”

Sasuke tried not to snap at her for doubting his ability to protect himself but she reminded him of the same things so many times over that was relatively easy just to give her a dead-stare in response.

It was something she was more than a little worried about as of late. At least, more so than before, when she trusted Shisui to be the one to walk him home after school. Now all she seemed to do was worry.

Sasuke was both scared and annoyed by this.

Everything was too different now. It was all foreign, the world without his brother in it. In the end, it had changed much more than his parents. His entire clan had become paranoid like that. From Itachi’s letter, he knew his brother’s side of the story but at his request, he had never told anyone else.

He had already told his parents the truth but it didn’t change that no one else knew it.

To everyone else, they could only guess why Itachi changed. Why he killed so many of their family members and why he betrayed them all so close to the day they were to start the coup. For it, they had all sorts of rumors about him. A few of them were actually fairly close to the truth and the most popular one was that he went insane behaving as a double spy.

Others thought—correctly—that it had been a higher up that had ordered for the clan’s extinction. But it only made them all the angrier and terrified of what Konoha wanted for them. They wanted to fight back, wanted to follow through on the decision that had been made many years ago already.

He didn’t know what his father wanted to do though, or his mother.

After Sasuke initially explained what Itachi had told him, they hadn’t spoken about anything concerning his brother and the clan’s future in a long time.

Sometimes he felt optimistic and would think that they were only waiting for Itachi to fulfill his promise and set things straight. But then he had to realize something huge; his parents had never told him the truth on _anything_ important. How could he trust them now?

It didn’t matter that they were doing all to him what they did to his brother; saying that he was the new heir to the clan and giving him all the extra lessons he had never realized his brother had taken too. It also didn’t matter that his father was a little nicer to him now or that his mother wasn’t so overbearing anymore.

All that mattered was that they lied to him too many times for him to trust them now.

First, when the entire clan had been made aware of the plans to fight against Konoha except him. Then, after Itachi’s murder spree, when his parents told him that it was just that—Itachi had snapped and that was the only reason why. Lastly, and perhaps most offensive to him, they didn’t even tell him anything _now_.

He was older than he had been, he was ten!

Yet they didn’t care to include him on anything and for that he couldn’t forgive them.

More so, he wanted to leave Konoha and the irritations that existed within. Then, maybe he could find his brother and finally get some real answers. At least _he_ had ended up confessing the truth, making him many times better than his parents.

Which was why, he thought as he spied his bag inside the closet, he was going to run away.

* * *

 **Prepare your mind** , Matatabi told her as she walked into the building she had just been summoned to.

 _What do you mean?_ Yugito asked, blinking as she reassessed the reasons for the raikage to ask for her.

 **You’ll see** , was all the cat said to her and it was with trepidation that she made it the rest of the way up to the raikage’s office.

As soon as she opened the door, he was yelling.

"You cut your hair!" Ay exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. He looked almost stunned.

"Yes," she stated bluntly, "I did."

"Well, it, uh," he made a face, "looks good on you."

Yugito sniffed, "Don't lie to me."

At that, he seemed to pale as if expecting her to go off on a rampage over the presumed insult.

"It's not a lie. You've always been naturally pretty..." Ay trailed off, seeming to fumble for a way to explain himself before realizing the water he was in was getting hotter by the second.

"Thank you," she murmured, attempting to reign in the conversation before seating herself in front of him.

Ay gave her a look that she couldn't read very well.

"What? What do you want?" she asked, shifting her gaze to look out the window before looking back at him.

"Is it a bad thing that I asked you here?" Ay asked, a smile growing on his face that unsettled her just a little bit.

"We don't usually meet like this at all," she mumbled, "It's usually planned months in advance."

"True," he acknowledged, "But this is something I have to tell you now."

"What is it?" she asked, shifting in her seat and feeling more than a little bit uncomfortable.

Ay went quiet, meeting her gaze before leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I want you to understand two things before I ask you something," he told her in absolute sincerity, lifting up two fingers for extra emphasis.

"Go on," she prompted him, trying not to acknowledge the sudden anxiety filling her.

"One, I've made my decision based on months, even years, of thought. This is something I take especially seriously and I need you to know that this isn't a joke I'm playing on you."

Okay...

This was a serious thing then.

Or a complete joke.

Yugito swallowed and shifted forward, "And the second?"

"The second thing is..." Ay seemed to hesitate before steamrolling ahead, "you can turn this down. This isn't an order. I can always find someone else. I need you to be just as serious as I am about this, Yugito-chan. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Yugito exhaled softly, wondering if it was some sort of dangerous mission or just a laughable one that might make her uncomfortable. She certainly wasn't expecting what he said next to her.

"I want you to be the next raikage."

She blinked, then blinked again.

"What?" she said though it was more the ghost of her speaking.

"I mean what I've said, think back to the first thing you said you understood."

"You're serious," she mumbled, unsure what to think or say next. But then, almost so quiet she didn't even know what she herself had said, it came softly, "Why?"

"Because you care," he answered, as if it was such a simple thing.

Yugito looked away from him, back towards the window and saw nothing but buildings and people. She didn't know why, but it was different now. The feeling as she looked out the window was different now.

"I don't know," she mumbled, pulling self-consciously at the short strands of her hair, "What does it mean for me? What do you want? Does it mean..." She didn't know what she was asking at this point, only that she had no clue where to begin on organizing her thoughts.

"Don't worry. If you do accept to be the next raikage, it'll take years before it actually happens. I merely want to get you started on the road towards it, learning all that you can and preparing you so that our people can experience a smooth transition of power."

"Right, right," she forced out, before shaking her head, suddenly amazed, "You really mean to choose me?"

Ay merely smiled, "You clearly need some time to adjust to this information. Think about it and give me your response in a week. I look forward to it."

"Okay..." she trailed off, still dazed as she took his words as a dismissal and went to stand up.

"But," he started, making her pause.

She looked at him, startled, "What is it?"

"I need you to understand one last thing," he said, scratching at his goatee before grinning at her, "This is your only chance towards this. I won't be making this proposition to you again. I need the next leader of this nation to be determined to fit the role. Now, be on your way."

"Right, right," she muttered, turning on her heels and leaving the room as fast as she could.

* * *

Itachi was having a hard time believing what he was hearing.

"Say again?"

"I'm going to be the next raikage or something," Yugito muttered, spooning a large helping of shaved ice. He had never understood her doing that but it seemed to calm her.

"Okay," he muttered, looking toward his bookshelf to see if there was anything on the psychology of broken hearted women. Or at least _something_ that could help him understand the mental breakdown his sister was presumably having.

"I'm not crazy," she mumbled, as if understanding what he was thinking.

"You aren't," he agreed before coming to sit beside her and reaching to take the cup of ice away from her.

She only forcefully began to cling to it before swatting at him, "I'm not lying! Ay-san called him into his office earlier today and told me. He wants me for the job. He said it's because I care or something stupid like that. I was too confused to ask him anything else."

Itachi breathed a sigh of relief, "So, you aren't crazy."

Yugito glared at him, eyes narrowing into thin slits, "Leave me alone or get me more ice."

"No," he said stubbornly, crossing his arms over his midsection.

She groaned at that, hitting her head against the table before moaning out her complaints against him in that colorful language of hers.

"Still, I'm curious. Are you sure you want to take the position?" Itachi wondered, sobering up at seeing the tears sliding down her cheeks as she turned to look up at him. It was a rare sight to see her cry and it was confusing to him that it was something over what most would regard as a good thing.

"I don't know," she whispered, turning her face once more to the table and letting out a soft sob.

Itachi felt himself freeze up, suddenly coming to the realization that whatever was going on in her head was far more serious than he had previously thought. For this reason, he debated in his head what to do next before blowing out a breath and finally coming to sit beside her.

"Is this because of Kakashi?" he asked lowly, as if they weren't already alone in their apartment.

Yugito shifted her face to look at him and her expression was that of incredible annoyance. Immediately he regretted his actions and tensed to be quick when he went to run.

Slowly, she responded, "Not everything is about that idiot."

Itachi nodded solemnly, wondering when would be the best time to escape. Then he looked at her again, saw the shade return to her face as the life seemed to evaporate out of her form, and he couldn't move away from her. Instead, he brought a hand to her shoulder and albeit awkwardly, gave it a pat.

"I don't know," she mumbled, "I don't know if I should do it. I'm too much of a mess."

"So this is because of Kakashi," Itachi said without thinking, attempting to understand where she was coming from. Yugito was making it increasingly hard the less coherent she became and the longer she wallowed in misery.

He expected for her to get angry, to hit him in the back of the head or something. But she didn't. Instead, she sighed and shook her head.

"No, it's not because of him. It's because..."

"Because what?"

Yugito began to look sick, shaking her head before sighing, "I hated this place. I hated it so much. Hated the people, hated the buildings, hated it all. What they made me go through. The familiar sights never change, Itachi. I can remember everyday what I hated so much about this village and at many points in the past, I wanted to run away. Leave, just vanish from this place and start a different life."

"So, you won't be accepting?" Itachi asked, confused and sad all at once for her.

"No, I will," she said, surprising him.

"Why?" he wondered, creasing his brows in concern.

"The place I grew up in was very different, I've been realizing. It wasn't Ay-san who hurt me, it was the raikage before him. Ay-san only ever did the best he could with what he had and he...he was kind. I didn't know this before," she explained to him, tears welling up in her eyes before she wiped them away, "It was just before I met you, not so long ago, that I was so stupid. I blamed everyone else for my problems, not even thinking of the things that I already had the power in me to help. But with you, with Kakashi, I've been learning that I was wrong for that. Stupid and thoughtless of others. I lied and pretended to care before, putting all of that energy into compiling reasons for me to stay in the village without ever actually wanting to. I regretted being born, I hated the people that raised me, I've tried to kill myself. But what use was it? I don't know. I don't know."

Yugito blew out a breath, as if trying to calm herself down before smiling.

Grinning.

"Why now?" she asked, shaking her head before covering her eyes with her hands, "Why do I feel so happy? Why do I feel so happy to be given this chance? To be alive? Why? After all of that? After all of the things I've said, all of the times I've cursed my life and the fates of others, why do I want to thank them?"

Yugito looked at him then, her eyes so wide and dark, "Does this make me crazy?"

"No," he answered her, pulling a stray hair from her cheek and pushing it behind her ear, "things like that make us human."

"Right," she whispered, coming to rest her head in the crook of Itachi's neck. She breathed in his scent and he breathed in hers, both of their worlds quiet and warm for just that second. Then, very softly, she said, "Thank you, Itachi, for teaching me this."

To that, he said nothing, only pulling her closer to him and deciding that even if she were crazy, he liked her all the same.

* * *

It was in his first attempt to leave Konoha that he was thwarted by the most unlikely opponent.

Sasuke had been on his way from the Uchiha compound, having already packed up what little he needed for the trip to Kumo. He didn’t have much—he had so much money that he really only needed to buy the things he needed at the time that he needed it.

It was best this way, so that he didn’t have much weighing him down on the journey. Nothing to slow him down.

Which was why he was moving as fast as he was as he made his way towards the crack in the walls that surrounded Konoha. It was well known in the village as the only point of weakness in the walls itself but had never been much more than replastered (then broken again). He wasn’t sure why but it was probably because because so many older shinobi used it as a way to sneak out on dates.

Or at least that’s what he had overheard from a crowd of girls gossiping.

Though, the closer he made it to the crack, he was starting to assemble a very different idea. Almost seemed it was because it was in the bad side of the village that his mother had warned him against venturing into.

It was because of that, he was beginning to feel more than a little skeptical as he began to walk even faster. He narrowed his eyes and clutched the straps of his backpack even harder before ducking into a more secluded path.

He hoped not to see anyone.

But knowing his luck, it wasn’t meant to be as, not even a minute set onto the path, he noticed the shockingly bright color of hair in contrast to the evergreen trees.

Sasuke instinctively scowled, having a sense for who exactly it was.

Naruto turned around to see him, and perhaps even faster than Sasuke’s reaction had formed, he scowled deeply.

“What are you doing here?” the offensively blond-haired boy asked, wrinkling his nose distastefully.

Sasuke didn’t respond—he attempted to walk right past him and let that be the end of it. Like a normal person.

But Naruto wasn’t a normal person. In every aspect of his behavior, he had to show just somehow how weird he was to everyone else.

So it should have come as no surprise when Naruto attempted to catch his wrist.

Sasuke could have ignored that and kept walking but...but that would mean a lesson unlearned and Itachi always told him to give everyone the common decency of an explanation for their mistakes.

And Sasuke had also been told that people learned much better by getting involved.

It was obvious to him what he should do next—and he did it.

Sasuke walked a few steps away before bending down to pick up a good sized rock, pretending to adjust his sandals. Then, maintaining the act, he walked just a little bit further. He wanted Naruto to be surprised when he got his present. He had to be fast too. Fast enough that Naruto couldn’t even realize it was him who did it.

As quick as he could, he turned on his heel and let the rock simply soar in the air to land wherever it wanted to. Almost as if he didn’t throw it at all.

Except, like all of Sasuke’s kunai throws as of late, it hit the mark dead on.

Right in the forehead.

Naruto reeled back, pleasingly shocked before spinning around.

Sasuke was quietly walking away, commending himself on a job well done—even his brother would have been proud—when the blond decided to fight back.

"Are you crazy, dattebayo!?" Naruto shouted at Sasuke as he ran after him.

The second his hand touched his back, Sasuke showed no mercy as he turned to swat at his assailant's face. Naruto deflected the hit with his hand before going in to smack him back with as much force as he could muster—which in the moment, wasn’t a lot.

"Leave me alone!" Sasuke grunted out, attempting to shuffle away with the bag on his back intact. But that all came to a screeching halt when the annoying pest that was the blond, grabbed onto the back of his shirt collar and yanked him back. Sasuke choked before he stumbled back and fell to the ground.

Simultaneously, the entirety of his bag's content spilled out; everything, from the pre-wrapped onigiri, the extra set of clothes to a wallet filled with an entire year's worth of allowance. Then, most importantly, his brother's favorite novel. For a second, Sasuke was more horrified at the sight of dirt on the book then he was at the wasted food—he could never eat something that was on the ground—but all of that changed when he looked up at Naruto.

The blond looked confused, "What are you doing carrying another set of the same clothes?"

Sasuke didn't attempt to answer—he would like to see blood on the streets before he would think to tolerate answering the idiot in front of him.

"Hey, were you going to a friend's house?" Naruto didn't seem to believe it the second he said it, crossing his arms while giving him a dead-stare. "Would be weird though, because you don't have any."

Sasuke froze with his anger, filled with too much hot fury to think of anything other than beating the kid's face into pulp. First, he tried to desecrate his brother's favorite book—and now he was outright insulting him?

It wasn't true either...not really. He had a few friends, they were all just older than him and...family members.

He reddened at the thought before bending down to stuff his things back inside his bag.

As soon as he rose, he couldn't help himself, he lowered himself down to Naruto's floor-height level.

With a emphatic shout, he raised his fist in a clear show of a threat, "Don't say that when you're no better!"

Naruto's face scrunched up, looking at him in disgust before the silence gave way into violence. The blond moved first, raising his fist and following through with the sort of attack power that could put a dent in a tree. But Sasuke just hit back harder, not even caring that he wasn't using the fighting formations that his father taught him privately.

The ones Itachi showed him had always been easier and more effective anyway.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted indignantly, aiming for his face with his next attack.

Sasuke deflected it easily, putting up his forearm before sending out a sweeping kick that brought the loud-mouthed brat to the ground. Naruto began growling, looking like a wild dog before he latched his hands around Sasuke's ankle and promptly tripped him in _the_ most underhanded attack he had ever suffered by.

“Let me go,” Sasuke said in his threatening lower tone.

“Not unless you tell me where you’re going,” Naruto demanded to know.

“No,” came Sasuke’s fast reply.

“Well, why not?”

“Because I don’t like you.”

“I don’t like you either, dattebayo!”

“You smell bad.”

“You smell even worse!”

“You’re like a kunai with dulled edges. You’ll never be able to hurt me with insults like that,” Sasuke said with an air of superiority that he couldn’t help. He smirked but promptly lost it when Naruto’s hold on his leg tightened.

“Yeah, well, yeah, well...” Naruto trailed off, flustered as a response to that didn’t come to mind.

He was too much of an idiot.

“Let go,” Sasuke repeated, wanting only to escape so that he could find someone with actual intelligence. Like his brother and maybe that girl who had caught him falling from a tree. Though she seemed almost a similar sort to Naruto.

He wrinkled his nose—no, his brother would never have such bad taste in people.

“Tell me where you’re going then,” Naruto insisted stubbornly.

“A friend’s house,” Sasuke muttered.

Naruto tightened his hold further, to an almost painful grip, “Liar.”

“Not lying. You’re just projecting and trying to see the problems you have as being my own. I’m not like you. I actually have people that love me.”

Silence.

He regretted the words the very second they left his mouth and almost expected Naruto to hurt him more. But he didn’t—he let go and the pain stopped instantly.

Sasuke moved away, clutching the straps of his backpack nervously before meeting dark blue eyes. He was convinced he was about to see Naruto cry. It was the only thing that made Sasuke reach a hand out, helping him to his feet.

“You can hit me in the face one time,” Sasuke allowed him, deciding to act on his brother’s advice and acknowledge his mistakes. Without actually apologizing, sure, but at least he said something.

“No,” Naruto growled out, crossing his arms over his chest and putting on a face that made him almost look like a religious monk. “I’m not like you. I don’t promote senseless violence.”

“You got that from a movie, didn’t you?” Sasuke asked suspiciously. It was then he had to realize he was on the brink of having an actual conversation with him.

Naruto said something but he wasn’t listening anymore.

He aborted the mission immediately by shaking his head and turning to leave, “I don’t care anymore. Go back to being an idiot.”

Then he proceeded to make his way to the crack in the wall.

* * *

Kakashi was exhausted, semi-coherent, and entirely unimpressed with society at large by the time he got out of that nightmare of a mission. It was common for him to loathe any mission that interacted with the Uchiha and this one was no different.

They all seemed to hate him on command—more than likely, because of his eye—which never made it an easy job whenever he got matched up with one of them. Either way, an emergency disaster had been thankfully subverted in a neighboring village and he had them to thank for it.

But now, with all that said and done, he had to go back to _spying_ on them at the Hokage’s orders to do so.

It was more than a little bit difficult— _insanity, more like_ —but it was him and Gai that had been the ones to manage it when others had failed. Nevertheless, it was a mission that he hoped wouldn’t last much longer. He had never been so alert and so paranoid for such a long duration of time before.

Even now, as he ran through the forest outside the wall and made his way around the back of Konoha, he was careful. Which was why, hearing the snap of a branch under a foot, he shot a kunai towards the sound and saw blue before he heard the sound of a shocked yelp.

Kakashi took pause then, blinking as he reassessed the situation he was.

An Uchiha, of all things, was glaring daggers at him.

Thankfully, he hadn’t hit anything vital and had instead pinned his sleeve to the side of a tree. Explaining any other circumstance to the Hokage would have just been a pain in the ass. The boy growled and it was then that something clicked.

Kakashi blinked, realizing who it was that he was looking at.

Sasuke Uchiha.

“What are you doing out here, kid?” he asked, not even expecting an answer.

He was right to because none came.

Instead, the boy struggled to dislodge the kunai from the tree and quickly gave up as he instead ripped his shirt from it. Which was one way to get out, he supposed. Still, showed just how weak he still was.

“You’re Itachi’s little brother.”

Sasuke stilled, narrowing his eyes, “Don’t use his name so casually.”

“I can call him when whatever I want to. I used to be his commanding officer, if you could believe it.”

“I can’t,” Sasuke muttered and at the sharp, quick retort, Kakashi lost a bit more of his patience.

“It’s the truth,” he said simply before giving the boy a dark stare, “What are you doing out here? This is no place for someone like you.”

Sasuke shut his jaw tight at that, obstinately looking away.

Kakashi’s eye twitched at that before he wasted no more time in grabbing Sasuke and tossing him over his shoulder like a sack of bricks. Kakashi grimaced at the weight of him.

“You’re heavier than you look,” he muttered before taking off back into the village. It was about then that he started to struggle. Kicking, slapping, biting, Sasuke was ruthless as he tried to get out of the hold he was in. The only thing he didn’t do was scream.

Kakashi sighed.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to go home?” he asked, using what little energy he had in him to restrain him.

“No, don’t take me there!” Sasuke yelled, attempting to wiggle out of his hold. He nearly succeeded, had Kakashi not strengthened his hold. However, he wasn’t giving up. With one hefty kick directed at Kakashi’s stomach, Sasuke leapt away.

Growling, Kakashi caught him in the air before swinging him back over his shoulder.

“Don’t take me back there,” Sasuke demanded.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, bouncing him the process before releasing a low sigh. Desperate times called for desperate measures, he supposed. It was probably really stupid of him, but he didn’t care. Instead, he said, “I’m a friend of your brother still. In fact, I saw him just recently.”

He stiffened at that and seemed to settle down. But it was all a false pretense because as soon as Kakashi relaxed, Sasuke punched him in the gut and yelled out viciously, “I don’t believe you!”

If he wasn’t such a kid, he might have gotten away but as it was, he was a little too strong to be taken advantage of by an academy student.

“Maa, maa, it’s true! He was with a blonde woman, protecting a boy about your age.”

At that, Sasuke shifted to get a better look at his face. Then scowled when he saw the mask getting in the way of that.

“You might be...telling the truth then,” he muttered, relaxing just a bit before mumbling out, “I want to go to him.”

Ah. It all suddenly made sense.

“So you were running away?” Kakashi asked, feeling just a tad bit bad for the kid. Then, because he almost hoped Sasuke would give him a little bit more information on the Uchiha, he asked, “Why?”

Sasuke gave him a sharp stare, “He’s my brother, that’s why.”

Kakashi raised a brow, “Brother or not, he’s not just a quick walk up the street. He’s way too far for a kid like you to reach on your own. You’d die before you even reached the first rest station.”

Sasuke scowled and vehemently shook his head, “No, I wouldn’t. I’m not an idiot.”

“Even if you’re not, you have no idea what it’s like out there.”

“Then take me there!” Sasuke snapped, dark eyes flashing like steaming coal.

“No, but I will be taking you home.”

“Stop, let me go!” Sasuke howled as he attempted to get away. It was all useless.

Kakashi stopped listening as he instead took off as fast as he was able in the moment. To avoid the streets and the possible kidnapping confusion that might occur, he instead went to the rooftops as soon as he caught sight of them. Speeding his way across them and barely even letting his feet do much more than glide over them, in some moments, it felt much more like flying.

Sasuke had gone silent, clinging to him now so as not to fall and hurt himself.

It was a minute later that he made it to the Uchiha compound entrance yet Sasuke, unlike earlier, seemed hesitant to leave his arms. He held on tightly as Kakashi attempted to tear the kid off of him. Instead, much like a terrified and unruly cat, he clung desperately to his flak jacket.

“What is so wrong with returning to your family?” Kakashi asked, starting to be a little bit more concerned with what might be his home life.

Sasuke had gone silent, almost shaking as he tightened his already vise-like grip. Kakashi sighed, letting his arms go limp around him. Just like that, Sasuke slipped down before collapsing in a heap on the ground.

Kakashi didn’t know what to say as he regarded the boy. He didn’t know what compelled him so abundantly to try and leave Konoha but he also couldn’t just let him run away to be killed in the harsh world outside the safe walls. Instead, promised himself to keep a better eye on Sasuke when it was his turn to spy on the Uchiha clan.

But first, he needed to get him inside his house before anyone got suspicious.

“You need to return home now, or I’ll be informing your parents about this attempt to leave,” Kakashi said to him, his tone cold. _Go on in now,_ he internally commanded. Of course, he was lying. He wouldn’t tattle on the kid unless he made a _second_ attempt but for now some scare tactics would be of use.

It worked.

Sasuke looked away, almost as if he were about to cry before picking himself off the ground and rubbing away what little tears had escaped. With an inhale, he squared his shoulders and met Kakashi’s gaze with a gaze filled with determination.

“Don’t tell them,” he said before turning to open the gate to his home and quietly adding, “bastard.”

Kakashi had to hold back a chuckle as he watched him disappear. He really needed to get some sleep—kid had taken more out of him than he expected.

With a rueful shake of his head, he turned from the gates and decided to walk home that night.

* * *

**One Who Tries to Escape - End**


	22. Two Years In Passing

  **Two Years In Passing**

* * *

 It was a few months later that Yugito sighed into the air, watching her breath turn into puffs of smoke in front of her. She leaned herself heavily on the windowsill overlooking the village nightlife, watching the people below with a sense of ire and love. Exhaustion stood heavy on her shoulders and papers she needed to look over for Ay were held crumbled in her fists, sure to have some of the ink running off the pages.

“You should take a break,” Itachi told her, laying in her bed with a book in hand and his ankles crossed. She shot a smile at him but shook her head all the same.

“No self respecting Kage would dare take a break,” she told him, her lips quirking into a tame smile.

“Ay-san took breaks all the time,” Itachi pointed out, giving her a long look, “Shi was always there to pick up the slack for him and you’ll have me to help you when you take office.”

“True,” she admitted before shaking her head, “but I don’t really need to take a break. I’m just a little tired.”

Itachi gave her a look before making an unimpressed sound at the back of his throat. Seconds later, as she maintained her stubborn position, he slid off the bed and went to the window to stand beside her. When she said nothing, he held out his hand expectantly.

“These are classified,” she said to him with a sly grin, “You don’t have the authorization to look at them.”

“I bet they’re just the team placements Ay asked you to make for this years genin lot.”

Yugito gasped as she turned to look at him, pretending to look betrayed and scandalized, “How did you _know_?”

He gave her another droll look before squinting his eyes at her and looking at her hand, “Really? That’s what they are?”

“Yup,” she grinned, feeling her mood pick up as she raised the pages up to show him, “He asked me to pick them all out. Even said he might use them if they impress him.”

“Let’s hope it impresses him,” Itachi said, a corner of his mouth lifting up. Yugito grinned back, dipping her forehead to lean it against his. Very quietly she hummed her agreement and pulled away to drink from the cup in her hand.

“It would definitely be useful for by the time the invasion comes around. Even if I’m not the raikage by that point, I can still have a bit of a say on if we go to the Chuunin Exams, right?”

Itachi nodded.

“Then, yes, let’s hope.”

* * *

Kakashi made sure to make no sound as he shifted on the tree branch. If anyone looked over, they wouldn’t be able to see him there, or even so much as smell him. He was just too good at being hidden and there was a reason the hokage had chosen him to spy on the Uchiha clan. Not that he wanted to.

There wasn’t much he could do except watch and keep track of the comings and goings from the main building. He could hardly cover the entire compound and as tensions rose within the political part of the world, he had to narrow his watches down to a single place. Which didn’t make for a comfortable stay, nor was it an interesting one.

It was something Kakashi noticed a while back, when he had first started to watch the the clan. He’d tried to scrutinize it, check for all the possible access points and weak areas of limited sight. He’d even gone out of his way to sneak in at night and thoroughly scope out the place. Either there was more going on in the inside than he was aware of or the Uchiha clan had taken a hit to numbers he hadn’t really registered until then.

He’d known that Itachi had killed a hefty amount but never so much to limit such a powerful and active clan. They had to have more numbers than he was witnessing.

The entire thing was too strange, too eerie and quiet. Very few people seemed to live in the compound. It became a rare sight to see someone walking around in the open and it was primarily children that adventure out. Sometimes they were teenagers but hardly ever did he see an adult which made it even more strange.

It wasn’t as if Itachi had selected his kills by how old they were. In fact, he recalled vividly that the first death had been a little girl. It was because of that, he could only believe that there was something else entirely going on. Something that was perhaps sinister.

He didn’t know though, and even keeping an eye on Sasuke wasn’t giving him any new information.

Kakashi withheld a sigh and shifted once more. In his boredom, he felt too damn tempted to pull out his book and let the time pass him by. But he had more respect for such serious missions than he led on in front of his teammates and he didn’t want to risk missing something important.

His suffering would have to continue then—but not for long.

It was an hour later, just after Sasuke arrived home, when Gai came by to replace him.

 _Finally_ , he thought, dreaming of a good book in bed and then a night of doing nothing but _sleeping_.

It always made him skip as he made his way home, glad that he didn’t have to watch birds hopping over roof tiles for another minute. At least for a while, then he’d be right back to doing it again the next da—.

Kakashi paused, eyes widening. Both of them.

Hesitating, he reached a hand up to touch the part of his headband that went right over his currently pulsing eye. He recalled in an instant Yugito’s face and their discussion about _him_. He’d felt the signs before. Like a headache creeping and growing, he could feel the presence of a person he had not see in much too long.

 _Obito_.

He was masked but Kakashi knew it was him.

He wasn’t expecting it to hurt like it did, and before he even realized he was moving, he was reaching a hand out to him. He pulled back at the last second, shifted the direction he stood in and faced the empty end of the street. Kakashi wasn’t ready yet—could never be ready for it.

For a moment, he thought he might just walk away.

But he didn’t. He simply stood there.

It was a second later that the pressure in his eye evaporated entirely. For a moment, it didn’t feel real to him. It must have been a daydream, something that his exhausted mind thought up to torment him. It wasn’t working, he couldn’t convince himself of what wasn’t the truth.

He’d missed his chance to talk to him and for it, Kakashi had another reason to hate himself.

There was something else bothering him still.

Turning to look at the Uchiha compound and the shut gate, Kakashi grimaced. Without a doubt, he knew that whatever Obito had come for hadn’t been a good thing.

* * *

“Welcome back!” Taniba said with a grin, arms opening up for a hug.

Itachi went into them, albeit with a touch of hesitance. Physical contact was always strange to him but he accepted it nonetheless. If Yugito was his new sister, this man was his new uncle. There was just no other way to look at him as. It had to be family.

“Is it Itachi?” a girl’s voice called and the two of them broke apart to see a green-eyed, burgundy haired woman step out into focus.

“Hello, Izuna,” he said, just as she rushed to take him into her arms. Itachi nearly choked on his surprise before allowing himself to be held. Seconds later, she shoved him away and knocked her knuckles against his arm. It wasn’t anything above a soft hit and Itachi almost felt tempted to return it.

He didn’t—as always, he simply didn’t know if it was right of him.

After all, he kept a certain distance between him and the lady of the village. Chiasaki’s daughter was treasured too highly for him to feel entirely comfortable with her. Though, it wasn’t for lack of trying. It seemed in her nature to attempt at being the best friend of anyone that crossed her path.

“Come in and have a snack with me,” she said, grinning and attempting to drag him deeper into the temple.

Itachi slipped out of her grasp and shook his head, “I’m here to speak with Taniba-san.”

“Oh,” Izuna breathed out before frowning and shifting to cross her arms over her stomach, “and why can’t you come talk to me?”

Itachi was at a loss for words. He stared at her instead, as if it were an obvious thing.

“Come on then, boy, let’s head out to the garden,” Taniba said, patting at his back and ushering him out of the way of Izuna.

Her jaw dropped before her face screwed up into a pout, “No fair! Next time, he’s mine! I have a new recipe I want to try out with him.”

Itachi shivered at the thought—he’d tried her cooking a few times before and loathed to experience it again.

“Hurry,” Taniba whispered into his ear and the two of them picked up their pace until they were entirely out of her sight and well on their way to the garden. It wasn’t a silent journey and as they went farther on, the old man poked him before asking, “What is it that you wanted to talk about?”

“Nothing important,” Itachi confessed, feeling a little guilty to be taking up the man’s precious time. Still, he couldn’t help it. His words flowed in a way they so rarely did with anyone else and he had to explain himself, “but lately I’ve been...experiencing more nightmares than usual and sometimes the feeling sticks with me. I was wondering if that ever happened for anyone else too and...what they might do that could help me.”

Taniba raised a brow before opening up the garden gate and holding it open for him. As the two of them passed through, he picked up a loaf of bread and tore it in half before giving Itachi a piece of it. It was only when they were seated by the koi pond and tossing bits of bread into the water did he say anything.

“You said before that you didn’t dream as often as you used to, that the nightmares decreased ever since you got to know that girl. So why have they come back now?” Taniba asked, taking a piece of the bread for himself and popping it into his mouth.

“I don’t know,” Itachi said with a shake of his head and gave in to the need to be honest, “I think it’s stress induced. I don’t know what else it could be.”

“Do you think it might be connected to the issues you’ve been having with your heart?” he asked, flicking a small piece towards the gaping koi fish. He smiled at the sight before turning to look at Itachi.

"I don't know," Itachi murmured, contemplating if there was any tie to it. But he couldn't be sure, even as he brought a hand to his chest and felt the beat of his heart for himself. It was as strange as always—he never focused much on his health and even then he could feel the tempo miss beats in between.

"Have you been attending your visits to the hospital?" Taniba asked and even from him, Itachi got a little uncomfortable at the question.

He forced himself to respond, "When I have the time for it."

Which in other words was a clean cut negative.

The old man sighed out, exasperated before he lifted his hand and brought it down on Itachi's shoulder. He was too tall now to be touched on the head like before and it was a strange feeling to know that he had grown in the time since their first meeting. It had been a long time since he had seen his own parents.

Before Itachi could be lectured, he went on ahead to explain himself, "I want to be there for my...my sister. She needs me."

"And what of her concern? I would have thought she'd be the first one telling you to go," Taniba made a low sound in the back of his throat before eating another piece of bread. He would exhaust his supply of it soon.

Itachi shook his head, "I've been...I haven't been completely honest with her about it. She sends me off and I—."

"You get back to working on whatever it's been that's been plaguing the both of you with such a heavy load." Taniba gave him a pointed glare.

Itachi recalled that he had never informed Taniba about their intent to take over the Raikage's position. In fact, he'd skirted around answering his probing questions and had done that for months. He still didn't care to inform him.

"Yes, I do."

"Well, perhaps you're feeling anxious about lying to her and that's what's causing the nightmares."

Itachi wasn't so sure.

"They're of my brother," he admitted and it felt cold to say.

Taniba raised a brow before popping the rest of his bread into his mouth. He didn't even chew before he swallowed. Itachi handed the rest of his to him and for a moment, they were quiet.

"You never talk about him with me," Taniba pointed out, breaking off the pieces and tossing them at an even faster rate. It was a sign of his emotions but Itachi had never been able to read him well enough to guess which one.

"I try not to with anyone," he stated as evenly as he could.

"Answer me this," he lifted up a finger and looked him dead in the eye, "What do these nightmares mean to you?"

Itachi paused and looked to the koi fish in his deliberation, and knew it was futile to think he could take an answer from them. He didn't know what to say, hadn't even known what to think even after he'd woken up from them. The fish continued to beg for bread and Itachi looked to Taniba with a grimace set across his face.

"In them, he's different. He's colder and, and _angry_. His eyes hold no warmth and he reminds me of someone but I don't know who it is."

"Your father, perhaps?" Taniba wondered, casting an unsure glance his way.

"No," Itachi shook his head and ran his foot over the blades of grass beneath his feet before releasing a breath of air. It was almost as if the tip of his tongue had the answer but it evaded him and uselessly, he looked into the water instead.

The koi fish splashed but as they realized the food has stopped coming, they settled and though the water continued to sway and twirl, he could see something different in the reflection. It was him.

"It's me," he said out loud, but in a tone too quiet to be heard before it got carried away by the breeze.

"What was that?" the old man asked but Itachi had his answer now and it felt too close to him to say again. For a moment the silence was tense but it eased as soon as Taniba gave a bark of laughter in that electric rasp of his.

"As long as it helps you in the end," he said, knocking his hand against Itachi’s back with no restrained strength.

Itachi rocked forward from the blow but remained seated. Seconds later, he was laughing just as hard as his uncle.

"More than you know," he responded and the both of them grinned.

* * *

Fugaku was always a hard man to understand.

Sasuke had never been able to grasp his character like Itachi or his mother could. He was either too cold or too hot, there was never an in between. He would be ruthless in the way he spoke to Sasuke, always demanding more and more. Too much more than he could ever _give_ and for it, Sasuke loathed his familial bond with the man.

Sasuke didn't love his father—not in the way he loved his mother, at the very least.

In the past, he did but that was then and before his brother had told him about his father's previous plans to take over Konoha. He still didn't know what to think about it, about the pain and suffering everyone had wrought onto his older brother. It was all too complicated and none of it made sense to him in the slightest.

He was almost certain his father had another plan in the works but he was never informed for it. They still didn't trust him and for that, he didn't trust them either.

In the end, he hated all of them, from the Hokage and all the way to the gremlins he attended school with. No one was safe from his wrath, from his contempt and especially not from the root cause of it—his grief.

He didn't know if his parents felt the same but he missed his brother in ways that was too hard to explain. No longer was he there to pick him up from school, or to watch his practice with kunai, or to spot him reading in a secluded corner, or even to eat a meal with. There was something missing, _gone_ from his life.

He had no hope to get it back and he knew for certain that his parents didn't have it either.

They were betraying Itachi. He knew it, he could feel it in the air and inside of his very bones. His brother had told them in his letter to _wait_ , in his very handwriting. He would come back to them, fix everything, and his parents were refusing to listen.

Once again, he wanted to leave Konoha entirely.

He simply didn't want to be caught up in the affairs of people that had cared for him only in passing. People who were more interested in themselves and what they wanted.

His father was one of those people, nothing could change that.

"Sasuke, come sit," Fugaku said and it was odd seeing an attempted smile on his face. He looked more tired than anything else.

He didn't want to but he obeyed and sat directly in front of him, sitting in the exact way he had been raised to. In his mind he could see his brother in the same position, had always been jealous of the place Sasuke had been in very few times himself.

Sasuke decided he would have rather gone out to practice his loathed genjutsu instead.

"What did you need of me, father?" he asked, his tone dull and flat.

Fugaku didn't take well to it as his eyes narrowed, "Is it awful that I wanted to talk with my son?"

 _You never wanted to before_ , he thought to himself bitterly.

His father released a sigh and it looked for a moment that he'd added years of growth onto his face. He looked exhausted, beyond his actual age and more like the elders that Sasuke did his best to avoid. But he was smiling.

"I wanted to ask you some things," he said and Sasuke shifted where he sat. This was not the man he was used to seeing as his father.

"What things?" he asked, tone suspicious.

"I need your advice but I...need to tell you something before that." If it was at all possible, his father looked to be the one more uncomfortable. Doubt crept into Sasuke as he began to pick at the cuticles of his nails.

 _Just ask already_ , he groaned inwardly and impatiently.

His father, noticing his taut expression, exhaled and somehow Sasuke began to hate him even more. Fugaku looked like Sasuke felt every time he thought about his brother. Dejected, inconsolable, and as if he were recalling something within him that despaired even at the mere mention of it.

 _Don’t make me pity you_ , Sasuke thought fervently and the anger that coated his veins stewed and boiled to a fever pitch. _I hate you, I_ **_hate_ ** _you_ , he thought, and it wasn’t for the first time.

“You were such a sweet boy,” his father said to him and if Sasuke attempted to look at him closer, he could have seen the tears that were there. The sense of loss he must have felt. But he didn’t see them. He couldn’t, his own eyes blurred by what he stubbornly refused to acknowledge.

“I’m sorry.”

Sasuke froze. The wetness from his eyes traveled to his chin and in that moment of clarity, he saw the stoicism of his father collapse to pieces. Like ash in the wind, Fugaku’s brittle facade crumbled and disappeared. He had never seen this before and more than anything, he hated it.

He didn’t want to know what his father felt. He didn’t want to know that he was human too.

It was easier to hate not knowing.

“Why are you apologizing?” he demanded to know. His voice sounded like knives even to his own ears but it was filled with all of that untempered hate of his. The years had only made it boil to the surface, always leashed to his heart and never allowed to escape him.

His father bowed his head, his shoulders shaking. Sasuke didn’t know what to expect next. Wide-eyed, he almost wanted to run away. He could have never thought his father would say what he actually did. Not even with as much as he already loathed him.

“In a little under two years, we’ll be going through with the plans your brother helped foil.”

The words felt like broken glass cutting into his skin and his nails embedding in his wrist even mimicked it.

With no hesitation, Sasuke got up and left the room.

* * *

Yugito bent down to pet the kitten hanging around her front door and looked up to see even more sitting delicately a few yards away and staring at her. Several of them were huddled up close for the warmth despite the snow that coated all else. She blinked but was not surprised.

“Hey, Itachi?” she turned to call into her apartment, “Do we have anything to feed to the cats?”

“We haven’t restocked anything for a few weeks,” he reminded her as he walked up behind her and slipped a hand through his second glove. Upon his head sat the hat she’d knitted for him a few years ago and it was just as adorable as it had been the first time she’d seen him in it.

“Well, shit,” she muttered, turning to look back at the sea of cat faces. They all looked so cold...

Steadfast, Itachi placed a hand at her elbow and when she met his gaze, he shook his head, “We’re not letting them inside. They’d ruin the place like they did last time.”

“But it’s freezing!” Yugito made a face at him but his expression remained the same.

“We’re late already,” he informed her with a roll of his eyes, “we have to go.”

“Fine, fine,” she muttered and after waving her farewell to the cats, the two of them took to the skyline trail.

They found their way to the Raikage’s building in under fifteen minutes—a new record for them and which made them remarkably right on time.

“You’re here!” Ay cried out with a grin pasted to his face like it had been there too long. Yugito looked to the door as she rethought herself coming to work on time. From the mountains of paperwork on his desk, it didn’t actually seem like such a good thing anymore.

“Where did all of this come from?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“It’s the end of the year backlog—things that weren’t important at the time, got tossed aside for another day,” Shi explained before sighing out, “and that day is today.”

“But at least there are four of us now!” Ay said in presumed cheer that sounded more like magnified desperation.

Unfortunately, Yugito spent her new years that way; swamped in paperwork and with no hope that it would end. It was only a precursor for many more days like that to come.

* * *

Yugito exhaled and watched as plumy white clouds of condensation entered the air. Her hands were cold in the lingering winter but she held them against her chest as close as she could. It wasn’t working well enough.

“I can’t wait till summer comes,” she muttered to Itachi and he nodded with as much heat as she felt against the cold.

“Spring will be nice too,” he added.

“That’s when you’ll being going to visit Tobio-kun, isn’t it?” Yugito asked, thinking of the letters they’d been exchanging that she tried hard not to read. Sometimes the temptation was too great.

Itachi gave her a knowing look before nodding, “We’ll be giving to each other the halve of the story we’ve written to critique.”

She hummed her understanding, “So that’s how it works? Sounds exciting.”

“It’s been fun,” Itachi agreed.

“Has it?” Yugito blew into her hands before looking at him, “I can’t wait to read it then.”

“My half of the dedication will be to you,” he informed her quietly.

“Ah! Really?” she turned to him with a grin and placed her cold hands in his. She felt much warmer for it and leeching off his body heat, she went in to link their elbows together. “When did you become such a cute little brother?”

He smiled but said nothing and Yugito was just fine with that.

* * *

“You’re late!” Tobio cried out as he opened the door to see Itachi standing there. But before Itachi could explain himself—he wasn’t actually late—the now nine-year-old boy went in and hit him right in the stomach as he went in for a hug.

Itachi tried not to choke on air before attempting to draw back and limit their proximity. Tobio wasn’t having it, taking his hand and leading him through the house with a grip that stripped the color for his skin. They ended up at the kitchen, where Asuka looked up from a cookbook and waved with a grin etching itself on her face.

“You’ve come, right as I was expecting you to,” the redhead slipped a lock of hair behind her ear before sitting up and coming to squeeze him into a hug. It was—Itachi hadn’t felt such an emotion in a very long time. Almost as if he were hugging his mother.

He tried not to linger in her arms before pulling back.

“Thank you for allowing me into your home,” he said, keeping his tone as even as he could.

“Enough with that,” Tobio interjected, pulling Itachi towards the fridge, “we’re getting snacks and going to my room to work on the book. We only have a week to do this, after all.”

It was with a sense of nostalgia that Itachi nodded, allowing himself to be shepherded. He tried very hard not to think of his family but as he met Asuka’s gaze and looked at the persistent boy, it was almost like being home again.

He was already waiting on the second for it to end.

* * *

“I’m calling off the mission,” the Sandaime informed Kakashi in the late evening on a particularly heated summer day.

“Why?” he asked, attempting not to sound disobedient like the word tended to make him.

Even Gai, standing beside him, made a despondent noise in the back of his throat

“It’s been a year and a half since I called on this mission and the little evidence that we’ve managed to collect from it is not worth the time it puts the both of you out of commission for others,” Hiruzen gave a raspy sigh, “Besides, Gai needs to get back to treating his genin as a priority now that the Chuunin Exams will be coming up later this year.”

It was a brutal reminder of what was supposed to come.

Then Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at Kakashi and upon feeling his gaze resting on his shoulders, he tensed.

“It’s time for you to become a teacher, Kakashi.”

There was no way he could say no.

* * *

“Team Seven,” Iruka began directly in front of the class, “will be comprised of Hinata Hyuuga, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki.”

Sasuke was feeling sick to his stomach the moment his name was called out. It was made even worse under the realization of who his teammates would be. If possible, his face shrunk into itself as he noted their own individual reactions.

Great.

A girl who passed out at every opportunity and a boy he despised completely—not to mention the deadlast of the class.

What a terrible team he’d just been assigned to. With all of that, he didn’t have grand expectations for their jounin teacher. Whoever it was going to be, was probably going to be just as terrible.

This was not the sort of happy occurrence that his mother was attempting to say it was. On the bright side, she had added a box lunch filled with all of his favorites for the occasion and it wasn’t as if he were ungrateful for it. He would eat it all—and pointedly without sharing like she had intended him to.

 _Itachi just never got along well with his teammates. He was too distant_ , she had told him after she had handed him the warm box, _I hope things are better with you and yours._

With the turn of events, he highly doubted it though it wasn’t as if he wanted their team to be doomed to failure. Even his brother had told him to get along with his teammates when the time came for it. Hypocritical of him but well-intentioned if he believed the best in it.

(He believed the best in all that his brother had to say.)

Still, as Hinata turned to him with those pale eyes of hers and Naruto sent him a scathing glare, he couldn’t help but sigh into the palm of his hands.

For this, he had to wonder what he had actually done in his past life to deserve something so terrible in this one.

It couldn’t have been too bad, could it? No, it couldn’t have been.

* * *

  **Two Years In Passing - End**  


	23. Three Students Under Scarecrow

  **Three Students Under Scarecrow**

* * *

 He sighed as he watched his newly assigned genin students quietly sit in front of him. It seemed to be some sort of feat for the blond and already Kakashi didn’t need to know the future to realize that he would be the most troublesome one. Iruka had already told him about all of the kid’s shortcomings and while looking at the son of his esteemed teacher, he couldn’t help but feel a tad bit confused.

(Disappointment was also a word he could not deny feeling.)

Then, there was Sasuke Uchiha.

He could feel the heat of his glare even from where he stood and it was not a surprise.

Yet, somehow, the most offensive of them all was the girl.

Hinata Hyuuga sat delicately and kept her eyes trained precisely on his face. Kakashi wasn’t convinced she was actually seeing anything. She was too red in the face and if the warnings the Sandaime had cautioned him with was anything to take into account, it was because of Naruto. He’d have to keep an eye on the two of them.

_This is not what she said would happen, this is not what she said would happen at all._

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the Hyuuga heir and couldn’t tell where in his life things had gone wrong.

Nevertheless, he would have to persevere.

“Well,” Kakashi sighed out and leaned back against the railing of the roof they were on, “let’s begin by introducing ourselves.”

Naruto squinted his eyes at him, “What do you wanna know?”

He kept it simple, “How about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies, things like that.”

“Hey, hey, why don’t you go first?” Naruto demanded to know, gazing at him suspiciously.

 _Yes,_ he thought with a bit more disappointment, _definitely the annoying one._

“Me? Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake,” he began and though an image of a girl flashed in his head, he added, “I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future, ahh...and I have a lot of hobbies.”

Gazing up him, confused out of his mind, Naruto whined and kicked up his feet, “But that only gives us your name.”

“It’s still your turn,” Kakashi said and decided to get the worst one of the way, “start from the right.”

“Yosh!” Naruto exclaimed with a grin as he realized it was him, “my name is Naruto Uzumaki. What I like is ramen, what I like even more if when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen. Hmm, what I dislike is the three minutes for ramen to cook and my dream...” Naruto trailed off and Kakashi could only guess the next thing he had to say was about ramen.

 _Does he only think about ramen?_ He wondered, somewhat amused by the thought.

“My dream is to surpass the Hokage and then,” Naruto’s tone shifted and he went in to grab at his hitai-ate, “have the people of this village acknowledge my existence.”

Kakashi blinked and was suddenly filled with something akin to nostalgia. It was something in his expression, his eyes and the determined set of his shoulders. It reminded him of Kushina for a brilliant moment and it suddenly clicked where he had gotten his annoying personality from.

 _He’s grown in an interesting way_ , he realized.

“My hobbies?” Naruto finished his introduction off lamely, “pranks, I guess.”

_Of course._

“Next,” Kakashi said, attempting to shake off the feeling he didn’t like being etched into him.

Fortunately, it was Sasuke and the sudden intrigue that found him was enough to make him stop thinking of the past.

“My name is Sasuke Uchiha,” the twelve year old stated and his tone sounded much older, “There are a lot of things I dislike and I only like a few things...” Sasuke trailed off and his pensive expression changed to one of certainty, “and though I can’t really call it a dream, I have an ambition to protect Konoha and wait for a certain man to come home.”

Kakashi was slightly awed at the answer. Not because it was Sasuke but because he hadn’t been expecting it. It was almost touching.

Smiling a bit more, he shook his head and looked to Hinata, “And you?”

“Ano...m-my name is Hinata Hyuuga. I like to p-press flowers and reading. I don’t di-dislike anything,” she paused and took a deep breath before rushing on to finish, “I dream of being a s-strong kunoichi for the village. My hobbies are...the things that I l-like.”

Sasuke looked at her with a scowl and though Naruto looked at her sympathetically, Kakashi still couldn’t wrap his head around her presence. He knew the reasons for it of course; an Uchiha had been the top kunoichi of their graduating group and rather than place her in a team with someone with similar traits, they’d gone with someone else. He just didn’t understand why Hinata to be that someone else. On the other hand, it just went further on to help craft a team of heavy hitters if she could rise to her potential as a taijutsu focused fighter.

Kakashi placed his chin in his hands and looked at all of them sitting next to each other. He might as well admit it—whatever happened to his team, it was at least going to be interesting.

“Tomorrow we’ll start our duties as shinobi,” he informed them and almost on cue, Naruto jumped up with his hand angled on his forehead and a grin plastered to his face.

“Yeah! What kind of duties!?” Naruto demanded to know, earnestly looking at him.

“First we’re going to do something with just the four of us,” Kakashi added.

It didn’t satisfy his thirst for an answer. Frenzied by his excitement, he asked in too high-pitched of a tone, “What is it? What is it!?”

“Survival training,” he told them with a tone that begged for no opposition. A part of him hoped that they wouldn’t pass the test but the other part was more looking forward to messing with them tomorrow. It would at least be a form of sunshine in what looked to be his dreary future.

He grinned at the thought and it was the first since—since too long.

* * *

Unfortunately, he had to let them pass but at least the look on their faces was enough to last him a lifetime in the gift of laughter. On the bright side, the good news was that they weren’t beyond hope in a fight. With training they could all be impressive. Even Naruto, though he really was too loud in a fight.

Hinata, if she could only get over her fainting spells, could even be a sort of glue for the three of them. After all, she had been the one to reach out to Sasuke and somehow got him to contact Naruto in maneuvering a tag-team between the three of them. However, that was just before any semblance of them working together collapsed into pieces the second Naruto shoved Sasuke into the water.

It made him feel almost a little bit more grateful for Minato’s teachings. After all, his genin team was just as awful, if not more so. Kakashi certainly hadn’t been any help in that time.

He shook his head at the thought; he refused to be bit by the nostalgia bug.

Still, he couldn’t help but palm the bells from his pocket. They were the original, the ones Minato had gifted him in the past. In other occasions where he had to test the genin that ultimately failed, he’d used duplicates. Kakashi didn’t really know why he hadn’t with team seven.

With a sigh, he shifted to place them back but then the shine caught his eye and made him pause.

“Did I?” he asked himself, unsure as he recalled a vague memory of giving one of the duplicates to a girl that now surprisingly reminded him of Yugito.

Weird.

* * *

Hinata was looking to be his favorite student out of the three.

If only for the fact that she didn’t hate him and didn’t take up the most of his time with an endless amount of questions that anyone else but an idiot would need to ask. She also brought him snacks from time to time and while she wasn’t the heavy hitter the team composition needed her to be, she was adept at learning the new taijutsu techniques he gave her.

“They’re supplementary to the juuken,” he explained to her as he kept an eye on her positioning, “I’d be interested to see how you could incorporate it into the way you fight. Surprise someone expecting only one thing from you.”

Hinata looked at him with a sweet smile, face dampened with sweat from the hot and humid day. “Yes, Sensei.”

“Keep your feet light,” he told her before knocking his feet against hers. She tipped over almost instantly but he caught her by the wrist just before she hit the ground. “Not too light or else you’ll be taken advantage of. Speed will be your best weapon in this case if you can’t stand to take a direct hit.”

“Yes, Sensei,” she said dutifully, catching her breath before righting herself.

“Good,” Kakashi said with something that actually might have been a smile.

Then, the headache popped up from his bukijutsu practice. Kakashi was fond of him in the way someone was fond of a pet and he tolerated the misadventures fueled by insanity that the kid attempted to drag everyone else into—but...

“Woah, hey, there Hinata-chan!” Naruto greeted with a grin and a wave. “Your form looks good!”

It was of no surprise when Hinata nearly collapsed to the ground, face as red as the skin of a tomato. With a long-suffering sigh, he held her up and dragged her to be placed beneath a tree and into the shade. It would be something he’d have to do _something_ about. If she kept fainting, it could spell disaster for their team out in the field.

“Is she gonna be okay?” Naruto asked, leaning around to look at Hinata. He looked genuinely confused and for it, Kakashi had to release a sigh.

“She’ll be fine. It’s the heat that got to her,” he lied, refusing to be the one to inform the senseless dolt of the girl’s crush.

 _Even I wasn’t so dense_ , he thought to himself. Then put a stop to that dangerous line of thought before turning to assess where his other troublesome student was at.

Less surprising was to see him blowing a gust of fire towards a wooden post. It stood no chance against the heat of the flames and seconds later, it was burnt to a crisp. Kakashi had to wince at the sight, unable to keep himself from imagining someone being consumed by his fireball. That was certainly one way to end someone’s life.

It didn’t help that sometimes Kakashi thought he wanted to use that jutsu of his on _him_.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of any way to make the kid hate him less. He didn’t regret what he had to do to keep him inside of the village. After all, it was what Itachi would have wanted and knew that it would only serve to make things more complicated than they needed to be. Besides, the boy was tough and determined to be of help to the village.

It was right of him.

Maybe—though time would tell.

* * *

Hinata liked her team. Sort of.

She liked her teacher just fine. He was distant but never so mean as her teachers in the clan and he didn’t make jabs at her if she failed to do something properly. In fact, she suited to his teaching style well and couldn’t help but be glad to be put under his supervision, as he mostly left them to their own devices. It let her work at her own pace and without the pressure to succeed being so heavy, she was able to give a little more time to the smaller details like she wanted to. It was the sort of confidence boost that she needed and it felt good to feel like mastery of taijutsu wasn’t beyond her.

It _also_ felt good to know that _Naruto_ wasn’t beyond her.

Because he was right _there_.

 _Don’t think about him so much,_ she told herself and attempted to shake her head and get back to retrying the kata forms Kakashi had just taught to her. It was so difficult to, and in the end she couldn’t help but sneak a glance at him. Joy filled her to see him working so hard and it was almost like when they were younger, except different. It was like everything she had ever wanted in her prayers for her genin team. She’d wanted nothing more than to be on his team and it actually _happened._ The cutest boy in the world that actually _talked_ to her. To her!

Hinata swayed where she stood and just before she tipped over, a hand came to steady her. For a moment, she thought it was Kakashi again—he always seemed to be doing that, just in time—but it wasn’t him.

It was Sasuke.

She got nervous just at the sight of him, and not in the way she felt around Naruto. It was a different sort of nervous, the sort that set her stomach into tight knots and she wasn’t sure if he was someone that was just like her cousin, Neji.

He sort of behaved like him too.

Sasuke had on an expression that wasn’t even a little bit friendly and more as if he were annoyed and angry with her. As fast as she could, she regain her footing and stepped away.

Looking to the ground and while thumbing the insides of her jacket’s sleeve, she hurried into a bow and hastily apologized and added, “Thank you for helping me.”

“You should take off that jacket if the heat is getting to you,” he told her, his tone thin and sharp-edged. He placed his crossed arms over his stomach as if her extra emphasis before continuing in his criticism, “and if you like that bastard so much, you should tell him already. It’s bothersome if you keep on fainting like you are now, not to mention how much it’ll hold us back.”

Hinata blinked and felt her opinion of him shift as she regarded him in an entirely different light.

Love advice had come from a rather unexpected source in the end.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice soft before she tried for a smile.

He didn’t returned and instead he scoffed, “Don’t thank me. Just do something about it.”

It was the sort of response that encapsulated well why she was so nervous around him. He didn’t bother to play by the social rules and propriety that she had been drilled on in her early childhood. He was the sort of person that disregarded them and simply did and said the things that he wanted to.

In the past, she would have been envious of him but in the present, she felt more insecure than anything else. She was used to what was made usual, and most things that veered from the common interactions she’d had with others, only served to alarm her. Hinata had never been very good with surprises, after all.

Flummoxed, Hinata could only blink at him.

It was at that moment that Sasuke finally smiled at her—it was one that brought light into his dark eyes and the hardness in his expression evaporated into what looked to be a mischievous smirk.

As she gaped at him, unable to assemble even so much as a word to say to him, he looked completely calm in comparison.

That smirk of his growing all the wider, he turned to walk away but not before he said to her, “You can thank me later.”

Hinata watched him walk away and return to his target practice and all the while, she couldn’t comprehend the sort of new nervous that took place of the old one. Confused, she looked instead towards Naruto and felt that age-old feeling of _happy_ return to its usual place. With it, came the same blush she’d been fighting against for years.

 _Nevermind_ , she thought and brushed off the incidence the best she could in the moment.

Setting the mystery aside for another day, Hinata blew out a breath and did her very best not to look at Naruto again—with limited success.

* * *

It was a few weeks later that Kakashi found himself cursing his bad luck, and not even for the first time that day.

 _She was right. She was right about everything_.

For a moment, Kakashi cursed _himself_ for having not listened closer to everything she’d told him about what would be the Wave mission—and what he was currently on. Of course, at the time it had felt less of an encroaching danger. She’d said they would make it out alive and he’d taken that as _Oh, it won’t be that bad._

He was wrong. Entirely too wrong about that.

It was _awful_.

For the second time in his lifetime, he was _drowning_ . That was because, for the second time in his life, he was trapped inside of a water prison and relying on a bunch of fresh out of the academy _genin_ to get him out of a trap devised by an S-class nuke-nin that had once massacred a year of genin when he was just a kid himself.

Not that he didn’t have faith in his students but well, he _really_ didn’t trust that they could—.

He spoke too soon.

* * *

“Y’know, genin aren’t that bad,” he found himself saying unironically to Gai on a late night that they had agreed to meet up at a bar. It was only for a few drinks but as with all things concerning their interactions, it was fast becoming an undeclared competition of who could drink more.

Gai was winning and looked even more shit-faced by the second.

“Mine are the best!” he announced loudly and waved a glass in the air recklessly, splashing alcohol over the rim of the cup. He didn’t seem to mind getting it all over his street clothes, a dingy and well-worn green shirt that Kakashi felt he hadn’t seen in years.

Even he had unearthed a shirt and pair of shorts—his father’s—that perhaps hadn’t seen the light of day since long before his father’s death. He sort of liked the change and it got him thinking about the question she had asked him long ago.

_If you had the chance to start all over again and in a world where you wouldn’t have to fight and kill in order to survive, what would you do with your new life and why?_

He’d answered with photography—as Sukea.

Kakashi would much rather be some sort of...maybe a writer. Or an artist.

“Ahh,” he breathed out, slumping his shoulders and realizing he was drunker than he had originally thought.

“Fusasaki wrote me another letter,” Gai stated happily and it was strange to be jealous of him for it.

He shouldn’t expect _her_ to write him anything. It would be too...weird. Besides, he wasn’t about to go write a letter to her either. What could he even say after all that time of silence? He could say nothing, even so much as to tell her about the unexpected change of Hinata joining his team.

It just wasn’t a good idea. First, he didn’t have much experience in it and from his reading of the exchanges between Fusasaki and Gai, there was a certain art to it that he simply couldn’t begin go learn. It also wasn’t much of a good time to send a letter. Especially because...

“She said to me that she’s thinking of coming to Konoha when Yugito and the others come here for the exams.”

_That, especially because of that._

“Hn,” he intoned with as little emotion as he could. If Gai sensed it, he wouldn’t have any hesitation in bringing it up.

“Are you excited to see Yugito after so long?” he asked and Kakashi released a weary sigh. He should have been expecting it, really.

Kakashi threw back another shot and attempted to drown himself a third time. He hoped the third time would be the charm and kill him before he had to answer a question like that.

Was he excited? No, not in the least.

He was too terrified to feel something as nice as excitement.

_She’s not like me, she’ll have a boyfriend. Or a husband._

Kakashi ground his teeth at the thought but calmed the moment he reminded himself of her virgin status.

 _Previous status. You don’t know if that’s changed, idiot_.

“Put the glass down before you break it,” Gai cautioned him and he felt even more like an idiot for being so worked up over the sort of details that didn’t matter. _Awful_ , he felt awful.

Kakashi put the glass in his hand down and rubbed at his eyes. He was ready to go to sleep and think nothing of the day she finally arrived in Konoha. Even though it would be soon, and awkward, and so different from what been their first meeting within the walls of the place he had been born.

Almost as if to torture him further, he couldn’t help but recall that he’d taken her down in a pretty rough way. She’d already had the broken nose and ankle but he hadn’t needed to exacerbate the pain of it for her. Even though she had been a pain in the ass, he should apologize for it...if he actually spoke to her again.

“We should probably get home,” Gai said with a content sigh before standing up and attempting to help him up. It wasn’t working out so great, though, and the two of them—both heralded as masters at their art and two of the strongest shinobi of their generation—fell to the ground in a heap of tangled limbs.

“I don’t know how to get up,” Kakashi admitted with a sigh, unable to comprehend how his muscles worked long enough to maneuver his way out from underneath his longtime friend.

Gai didn’t hear him in the end. He’d fallen asleep the instance his head hit the floor. At that point, Kakashi relearned much quicker how to move and he did it within seconds. No way was he going to be trapped underneath someone that smelled so repugnant.

Whistling and stumbling out the bar alone, he headed home and hoped not to wake in the morning.

* * *

 _Oh god_ , Yugito felt miserable.

Traveling with fifty-one genin (that number not including the jounin teachers), she’d felt as if she’d just gone to hell and back. Her nerves were scattered, her body was exhausted, and she thought that _maybe_ she was talking way too much to the voice in her head that wasn’t Matatabi.

There was only so much she could endure when it came to hanging around children and adults, all of them begging for her attention as if she had the energy in her to be anything less than crabby. Ay had done this purposely to torture.

 _“If you want to have our genin compete at the Konoha Chuunin Exams, then all of them will be your responsibility,_ ” he’d told her in all seriousness. Worse was when she noticed the mischievous glint in his eye and knew she should have guessed he’d say something like that to her. It was Ay, after all.

He surely got off on being difficult for other people.

Blowing out a sigh, she looked to Itachi and had to acknowledge that for all that she suffered, it was nothing in comparison to what he was going through.

She bumped their hips together as she closed the distance between them and tossed an arm around his shoulder before realizing that the centimeter of difference in their height was a lot longer than she’d thought. Yugito couldn’t help but laugh as she settled for hooking her arm around his and enjoying his exasperated expression.

“I’m fine,” he told her and she blinked at him innocently.

“I didn’t say anything,” she informed him with a nod of her head.

Itachi spared one more glance for her before shaking his head and shifting to look back at the crowd of Kumo-nin that they’d been shepherded into a room to process their papers. Yugito loathed to do it, but she followed his lead and watched the mayhem unfold before her. If she was much more optimistic, it was should have been a good sign—finally, she was seeing the signs of a reprieve from the madness of leading such a large group and the end to traveling. Even better was that she knew she was only hours away from being able to soak in a nice, hot bath and think of _nothing_.

It sounded divine.

“We should go get ramen together,” she said conversationally and looked up to gauge his expression from the offer. It wasn’t so good.

Itachi met her gaze and very slowly shook his head.

“The bookstore?” she tried again and watched him consider it. Seconds later, he nodded and at the gesture, she was filled with relief. Squeezing in closer to him, she added, “I bet they have a different selection than what Kumo does.”

“Most likely,” he replied though it was clear he had other things on his mind.

“You’re disguised, no one knows it's you,” she said, very low and trying not to feel guilty for being the one to convince him into coming with her. He’d been reluctant for a reason but she knew she couldn’t be on her own for the next stretch ahead of them and she was—she was afraid.

He was the only one she knew she could rely on, after all.

Itachi smiled at her and it was a warm, pleasant one. It changed too soon. She continued to look at him and as he noticed her worry, the expression on his face shifted. For the first time, he brought up a hand and rested his palm against the top of her head. The smile pasted on his face looked even more like a lie.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t be,” he told her and she knew he was only made more uncomfortable for her to put him into such a focus. Yugito sighed and attempted to refresh their conversation, regretting having brought the conversation up and putting him in an even worse mood than before.

Thankfully, that was the moment that Fusasaki popped her head into Yugito’s view and gave a very delicate wave.

Detaching herself from her brother, Yugito crossed the distance between them and very nearly had a heart attack. The second she got close enough to see the green of her eyes, Gai came into view with all the spontaneity and dazzle of a lightning bolt hitting the ground. Alarmed, Yugito attempted to hide the jump in her step but couldn’t stop the sudden nerves that sprouted up from the sight of him.

 _I’m going to be sick_ , she thought, trying not to throw up then and there. It would be such a disappointment if she did—it wasn’t even _him_. Yugito attempted to breathe more due to the sudden loss of oxygen in the air.

“Hello, Gai,” she said and her smile felt cheap and fake as she waved towards him.

“Yugito! The flower from the cracks of rocks!” he cried and seconds later, engulfed her into a hug so strong it took her feet off the ground.

Yugito couldn’t help yelping and falling against Itachi the moment he let go. Her ribs protested vehemently and she noted with certainty that she would never again let him do that to her. Thankfully, Itachi had caught her just before she stumbled back and landed on her ass.

“Who is this?” Gai asked, peering at Itachi and she looked at him, confused for a moment.

“My name is Takeshi,” he supplied, no hesitation in his words.

It was a disguise to fool a Kage, after all.

“Right,” Yugito nodded, “he’s my...a friend of mine.”

Heat filled her cheeks. It was just so _obvious_ that she was lying. She exchanged a look with Itachi and decided that at the very least, Gai was close enough to their plans that it wasn’t bad for him to know. Resigned, Yugito opened her mouth to fess up while she was getting ahead of herself.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

“A friend?” Fusasaki asked, raising a hand to her mouth in surprise, “you didn’t tell me...”

Yugito blinked.

“A _friend?_ ” Gai asked, expression changing as swift as the tides at a beach, “Like, as in a _friend?_ ”

“Yes?” Yugito squeaked out, confused as she scrutinized the two of them. Were they playing a joke on her? Unsure, she looked back at Itachi who already had his palm to his face. She sighed at the sight. He would be of no help to her.

“We have to go,” Gai suddenly said, pulling Fusasaki close to him. Yugito tensed as the two of them began to maneuver their way out of the crowd.

“Wait,” she weakly called out, “where are you going?”

She almost thought they didn’t hear her but then, clear as day, Gai yelled back, “To warn my best friend that you’ve found an even greater love!”

Jaw dropping, she looked to Itachi and back towards where the green-clad ninja had already disappeared from. Her confusion had cleared and in its place was a sense of horror dawning over her. The blood drained out of her and she felt even fainter than before she had arrived to the processing room, if it was even possible.

“Idiots will be idiots,” Itachi muttered beside her and placed a consoling hand on her shoulder.

 _That’s an understatement_ , she thought to herself and continued to lament her bad fortune.

She’d always known their meeting would be awkward—she just didn’t know it would be so humiliating to boot.

“It can’t be helped,” she said out loud and attempted to think of nothing else but getting to her hotel and taking a bath.

It was the least she deserved.

* * *

**Three Students Under Scarecrow - End**


	24. Four Letter Word

 

**Four Letter Word**

* * *

**** Gai hesitated, hand over his mouth as he watched his long-time friend giving a lesson to his students. It was a sight to see, three heads looking up to the jounin and hanging onto every word much in the way that his own students did. It was the sort of thing that Gai thought he would never see in his lifetime but couldn’t express the joy to see it.

Kakashi always seemed to hell-bent on being by himself and though it was mostly at the Hokage’s wheedling, that Kakashi agreed at all was a miracle. He was so much better now than before, surprising Gai in the form of invites to places and actually wanting to hang out with him voluntarily outside of their challenges.

The green-clad shinobi had to hold back a sob.

All of that, all of the progress the silver-haired nin had made in the past years, would be gone. Destroyed, decimated, dead!

“Maybe we shouldn’t tell him,” Fusasaki said beside him, her expression pensive as she chewed absent-mindedly on the bottom of her lip. It was terribly cute, which wasn’t surprising because everything about his girlfriend was adorable.

_ Girlfriend _ . He even mouthed the word and wanted to weep for entirely different reasons than before.

“Though it’d be bad to keep him in the dark,” she sighed out, sweeping back her brown hair and looking up with her green-speckled eyes. His favorite color on his favorite girl. It had been destiny leading them together. They even thought alike!

“It would be a betrayal of the worst sort!” he agreed emphatically.

“What would be?” Kakashi suddenly said as he dropped from the tree above them.

Gai nearly shat himself, his eyes widening as he looked to Fusasaki for guidance. She seemed to be just as alarmed, looking at his eternal rival in horror.

“Nothing!” she said dismissively but of course Kakashi knew better than that. He was too much of a genius to be fooled.

“Shouldn’t you be teaching your students?” Gai asked, attempted to stall as he formulated the best way to give his friend the bad news. His mind went blank and with sweat beading on his forehead, he had to acknowledge that it was time to panic.

“I have a clone out doing it for me,” Kakashi said, jabbing a thumb behind him towards the sight that confirmed his words. “Was taking a nap until you guys woke me up. What’s up?”

“It wasn’t, uh, anything,” Fusasaki said nervously, reaching up to tug on the sleeve of his jonin shirt.

“Yugito-chan has a boyfriend and we saw them together,” Gai blurted out, ensuring a violent smack of his arm as she gave him a look. He gazed back at her helplessly and tried not to look too hard at Kakashi. Okay, he looked, a bit too long and searching for a reaction but he did.

There was none.

Kakashi stared at them and not even a muscle twitched on his face before the sound of an explosion sounded off a few meters away. It was then that Kakashi was jolted back into awareness and from the field, an outcry filled with indignant screaming rose up and blasted all of their ears.

“Kakashi-sensei was a _ clone _ !?”one voice said.

“N-Naruto-kun, don’t touch the fire!” came another, a girl.

Then, finally, a different voice from the first and infinitely angrier, “Get over here, you  _ asshole _ and actually teach us something  _ useful _ !”

The silver-haired shinobi sighed, dipping his head to look down at his feet before looking up at the sky. Seconds later, he shooed them away and with a shrug of his shoulders, he said, “Duty calls. Thank for telling me though.”

It wasn’t what Gai was expecting and as he exchanged looks with Fusasaki, he had to wonder.

“Will he be alright?” she asked softly, her gaze worried.

“I hope so,” he said with tears in his eyes, “I really hope so.”

* * *

 

Yugito inhaled the scent of strawberry and chamomile tea before she leaned back in the tub and blew out a long breath of air. Her toes and fingers had pruned from the time she had spent in the warm water and already she had washed her hair and shaved her legs. It would have been nice, especially after a week of traveling and finally having the chance to wash herself.  Almost instantly, her tired and heavy muscles relaxed, and replacing the grime and dirt was the sweet smells she loved the most. 

It would have been so nice. Except it wasn’t, not entirely.

Not when all she could think about was  _ him _ and whether or not Gai had got to him, spreading the most awful lies about her and  _ Takeshi. _

She was trying to calm herself—it wasn’t working.

“Nya, nya, nya,” she sang absent-mindedly and picked at a scab she probably should have left alone.

As if chiding her, blood ran to the surface and she wiped it away with a soft chuckle.

Yugito was doing a very bad job in distracting herself.

“He probably doesn’t even remember me,” she mumbled out loud and shifted so that she could bring her face to her knees. She thought she might cry but the tears refused to come and instead, she growled deeply at the thought.  _ He better fucking remember me _ .

She hoped.

Sick and tired of feeling and thinking and  _ doing nothing _ , Yugito drained lifted the plug to drain the tub and lifted herself out of the tub. The room was hot and humid still, giving her no reason to rush as she shuffled around in the bathroom for the strawberry-patterned towel she had remembered to pack.

Wrapping herself in it, she opened the door to the bedroom and paused for a second.

Amidst the scent of her bodywash and shampoo was a little of something else. Yugito squinted her eyes and dared to inhale deeper. It was familiar, a bit nostalgic and it was somewhat suspicious. She couldn’t remember where it had come from but very distantly she knew it had come from someone.

Yugito looked at the door to the balcony, and cocked her head when she noticed it opened up a little more than she remembered it being. Suspicious, indeed.

“Kakashi, I know it’s you.”

She surprised even herself when she said it and though she tried not to show it, Yugito couldn’t help frowning just a little. She wondered distantly if she were going insane and was just making up his smell in her head just to torture herself. She couldn’t put it past herself.

It would also explain the silence she received.

Huffing out a sigh, she trudged barefoot towards the door and went in to shut it when a pale hand slipped through and stopped her. A second later, Kakashi flipped into sight. He was smiling, though it wasn’t a warm or happy one. Yugito sucked in a breath.

She hadn’t known what to expect to feel when she saw him again but it certainly wasn’t the blush that formed itself on her face.

Just as fast as she drank in the sight of him, he took in her—and he did a double-take.

“You’re hair,” he stated and reached a hand out to touch it.

Instinctively, she leaned in and just as she was noticing what she was doing, his expression tightened and he drew away. Her heartbeat could not beat any faster than it was. It was odd. Yugito had faced fights to the death with less anxiety, and suddenly just being in his presence made her feel like she could have a heart attack at any second.

“I cut it a few years ago,” she admitted and lifted up a lock of her still wet hair to emphasis the length, “it doesn’t grow back very fast.”

He said nothing, just stared.

With a hesitant laugh and shifted uncomfortably, she mentioned off-handedly, “Itachi cut his too. It got short, like...short and it grows back much faster so we keep having to cut it.”

_ Fascinating conversation skills _ , she griped at her idiot self.

Embarrassed, she dipped her face behind her hands and blew out a soft sigh. Letting the moment pass, she dropped her arms to fold them over her stomach and looked at him intently. Nervous, unsure, scared. It was probably all showing.

“What are you doing here?” Yugito asked, trying not to show anything.

“I came to see you,” he said quietly. Then, as she blinked at him in surprise at his honesty, he coughed. “I mean, I came to talk to you about the plan of action.”

Disappointment and understanding filled her as she nodded numbly, “Right, the plan. Don’t you remember it?”

“Of course I do,” he answered, sounding just a bit offended that she’d think he’d forget.

Not really registering it, she bobbed her head and nodded her head towards her bed, “Well, make yourself at home while I go...change.”

Yes, clothes. She needed to put them on.

Glancing towards her bag—practically stuffed and brimming with miscellaneous things—and heading towards it, she unzipped it with a mechanic touch that sent more things spewing out of it than remaining inside. Yugito cursed, her tone sharp.

One hand clutching at what was keeping her towel wrapped around her, she used the other to shove things back in while inwardly cursing her poor packing skills. It was perhaps not the most attractive sight and even more flummoxed and rushed, she tossed out a random dress and underwear and hastily shoved everything else back in.

Everything else but a ringing bell that rolled away from her.

Kakashi stopped it with his foot and with a lifted brow, he bent to pick it up just as she lunged herself at it. Too late, he palmed it and held it up in the light for better inspection. Yugito reddened and though it was already a lost cause, she didn’t give up. Rising onto her knees, she wrapped her arms around his legs and determinedly  _ pushed _ .

He buckled and though he caught himself before he fell, she gave it one more shove with everything she got and watched him with satisfaction as he tumbled to the hardwood floor. He muttered out a curse and looked down his chest at her as she scrambled up to reach for the bell he had once given her.

Two things happened simultaneously. First, her towel betrayed her and had bunched up and slid all the way down to her hips, where she struggled to keep it. Second, he still held the bell in his hand and he was ringing it quite victoriously.

“Please don’t look!” she cried out, feeling as if she were stuck in some sort of awful dream.

She refused to budge, afraid that he’d get too much of a glimpse of her chest and then and then....and then  _ what _ ? Nothing, nothing would happen but it would be terrible and embarrassing and  _ god why did she get herself into these sort of messes? _

“This looks familiar to me,” he said, ignoring her and how tightly she pressed up against him.

Yugito shook her head fiercely, “No, it doesn’t. Forget it and give it back.”

“No, I think it does and I think...” he trailed off and glanced down at her.

“Don’t look,” she mumbled weakly.

“You  _ were _ the girl,” he mumbled but it was only what she thought he said.

Yugito couldn’t be too sure, as only a second after it, he’d drawn back his mask. With a toothy grin on his face, he shifted both of them until they were so close, they could kiss. Heart beating voraciously in her chest, she closed her eyes and sighed out.

Their first kiss in years was slower than she expected, and it burned something into her. More than ever before was teeth and tongue and  _ heat _ . In the back of her throat, she moaned softly and it seemed sufficient to trade in the ability to breathe to be able to feel so good.

Before she knew it, they’d shifted again and this time it was with her laying underneath him, his hand already touching the side of her uncovered waist. Delicious were the shivers and tingles that raised from his searching touch and it was true that she’d never felt anything like it before.

It was all new— _ all of it _ .

When they broke away, Yugito had no air to breathe with and her chest was heaving for it. Dazed, she looked up at him and saw the ceiling fan circling above. Her limbs felt weak, her arms like a dead weight as they slipped from behind his neck to land next to her face.

He could see her. He could see every inch of her.

“You’re beautiful,” he said quietly before rolling right and landing beside her on the floor. Too soon, they both regained their breath and reality hit like a ten ton weight or a bucket of cold water splashing over her head.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do this,” he muttered and sounded as if he actually regretted it.

She turned on her side at the comment and faced away from him, her back towards him.

“I liked it,” she admitted, just to get back at him for being so calm about it.

“You’re also...not single,” Kakashi ground out and for a moment, she liked to hear the anger in his voice. Just a little. Though she knew she needed to clear up the misunderstanding before it got too far advanced. It was the route with the least headaches.

Yugito sat up and looked over at him before very blankly saying, “It’s Itachi.”

Kakashi blinked, hefted himself onto the back of his elbows and blinked again before looking to her incredulously, “You’re with  _ Itachi _ ?”

She reeled back at the question as if she’d been slapped, firmly disgusted. Then, at his confused expression, she scoffed at him, “No, you idiot. Why the hell does everyone assume that!?”

He gave her a droll look, “You’re not giving me much to work with.”

Yugito tutted to herself. “And you’re supposed to be the genius,” she muttered and sighed. Shaking her head, she lifted her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them before very slowly saying to him, “Gai assumed I was dating the man I introduced as my friend. That friend was Itachi.”

“So...” he trailed off before audibly swallowing and hesitantly asking, “you’re single?”

She squinted at him, “Of course I am.”

“That’s good,” he said and he was actually smiling at her—an honest and broad one.

It was the sort of expression that took years off his face and made him look all the cuter with a hint of his canine teeth poking out. Yugito couldn’t resist a blush rising to her face at the sight and she took the opportunity to reach for her towel.

She wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

He caught her wrist, met her alarmed gaze, and said very softly, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Her entire body flushed to a different shade and in her desperation, dazed and bewildered, she reached for the dress she’d taken out of her things and used the speed she was known for in dashing to the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her.

Distantly, she could hear the echo of his laughter.

* * *

Kakashi felt euphoric.

_ Single! _ His mind kept saying and it was like a miracle to behold. He didn’t know how it was actually possible that  _ Yugito _ —in all her glory—hadn’t been taken yet. He was still running off the adrenaline and though he had been so nervous before, it was happy sort of buzzing energy that filled him.

He wanted to do something stupid. Like dance, or skip, or sing from the top of the building and okay, okay, he was being dramatic. He just couldn’t stop himself from it, especially after the scare he’d had earlier that day.

Kakashi had thought it was over for them and had thought he would see her one last time and fully understand that she was gone. Even so much as that she wasn’t worth the obsession he had been plagued with. He’d been wrong on both accounts.

In his mind he could still see her, everything from her wide-eyes, swollen lips, and the the swell of her breasts. Vivid was the sensation of touching her, the feeling of satin skin and the heat emanating from her. He reddened from the memory and though he wanted to think of other things, he could not.

A knock at the door then, thankfully taking him from his thoughts and back into the real world.

The sound of a door creaking made Kakashi look up.

“Can you go see who it is?” Yugito asked as she peered from around the corner, her cheeks still distinctly blushed. Before he could get a good look at her, she disappeared behind the click of a closing door and left him to hear another knock.

Ever the obedient man, he stood up and made his way to the door before swinging it open. He was surprised to recognize the scent but wasn’t expecting to face the gaze of an unfamiliar face to match it.

“It’s Itachi,” he called back as he stepped aside to let him in.

The stranger gave him an odd look but Kakashi only gave him the barest of smiles in response before lifting his mask over his lower face. Trying not to look too hard at the disguise, he instead nodded towards in him firm acknowledgement and made his way to the bed.

“Welcome home,” he said offhandedly.

“My name is Takeshi,” Itachi corrected and Kakashi took the message for what it was.

Don’t expose him.

“Right, right,” he said to him in quick acceptance of it.

“What are you doing here?” the Uchiha asked and at the question, Kakashi felt his body heat flare up. He shrugged. Itachi gave him a deadpan stare.

“I came to tell her a few things,” he answered finally.

“So did I.”

They stared at each other quite dumbly after that.

The door to the bathroom opened and Kakashi looked up expectantly.

Yugito stepped out, hesitation clear in her face as she looked out at both of them and asked, “Tell me what things?”

“You have meetings to attend with the clan heads,” Itachi announced, speaking up first and she refocused on him.

Kakashi blinked at the news—what business did yugito have with the heads?

“Will the Hokage be there?” she asked, unsurprised and taking it in stride as if it had been something she was expecting.

“He should be, but I’m not too sure,” Itachi admitted, “but it’ll take place during the first exams and shouldn’t last too long after it. It’s just a meet and greet, from what I was told.”

Yugito lifted her arms up and her bones cracked audibly while she stretched her body out. “It makes sense. It’s tomorrow then, right? Will you be coming with me?” she asked, her arms falling limply at her sides as she focused in on the Uchiha.

There was clear discomfort in his body language but his face was expressionless still, “If you don’t mind, I’d rather...not.”

Understanding crossed Yugito before she released a small sigh. She looked so disappointed and, if he was reading her right, she perhaps looked a bit scared. Apprehensive, at least. Biting her lip and twisting her body to pop her back, she very quietly mumbled, “I’ll be alone then...”

Kakashi braced himself but he was still dumb enough to say it.

“I’ll go with you.”

Both of them looked at him in surprise, though Itachi seemed much more suspicious of it. Yugito regarded him, a cross between hopeful and hesitant though it didn’t seem to stop her from smiling at him.

“Will you?” she asked.

_ Nail in the coffin. _ Kakashi accepted his fate without further thinking.

“Of course, I won’t be doing anything else while my students are taking their exams.”

“True,” she acknowledged, her smile broadening before it fell into a questioning frown, “Weren’t you going to tell me something too?”

“Yeah, about that,” he looked up towards the ceiling and rubbed at the back of his suddenly pained neck. “It’s about my students.”

Kakashi turned his gaze towards her just in time to see her gaze turn worried and Itachi stiffened beside him on the bed. It was probably a bad move on his part. No telling how his had-been-once teammate would react when being told his little brother wanted to defect to go live with him.

He started off with the easy stuff then.

“Hinata Hyuuga is on my team instead of Sakura Haruno.”

Yugito blinked rapidly before scoffing out, “ _ What _ ?”

Itachi even made a dissatisfied noise in the back of throat.

“It’s true. There were more Uchiha in the genin graduating class and it messed up a few of the team formations what you told me they would be,” he explained and watched as Yugito very slowly came to the edge of the bed and shoved at his leg to move. He did, clearing space for her to sit and face him and watched as Itachi sat closer to the end of the mattress.

“Explain,” Yugito ordered and though it was a completely misplaced emotion, he couldn’t deny liking the snap to her voice.

Kakashi obeyed.

“Well, it was an Uchiha who placed first as the top kunoichi in their year,” he began, “The Hokage didn’t want a duplicate on the same team and decided to go for a bolder pick, matching up a Hyuuga and an Uchiha in the hopes that they would excel as a combat team, which they will.”

“What happened to Sakura though?” Yugito asked, concern in her gaze.

“From what I know about the other girl, they placed Sakura Haruno with a genjutsu based jounin to hopefully get her to specialize in it,” he answered and resisted reaching a hand out to touch her.

“What else changed then? Any other teams?” she asked, leaning back on her pillows before stretching out her legs over his lap. It only made the struggle against instinct that much harder. Kakashi gave her a look, to which she responded with a very self-satisfied grin. The very sort that he could envision sending thrills of heat through him for the rest of his life.

It was dramatic but unfortunately true, made all the worse at the feeling that no time had passed at all since he’d last seen her. Yet he was still afraid that it had been too long for there to still be a chance with her. Somehow he’d tricked his mind into thinking that it was only possible in a daydream, which was admittedly more truth than fiction.

Kakashi shook himself from his thoughts and refocused on her and the question he could barely remember hearing, “I’m not so sure beyond what you called the rookie nine but a few more teams passed the second test than expected. One of them is where that Uchiha girl went to.”

“Do you know her name?” Itachi asked, looking both curious and apprehensive.

“Sumiye, I think it is,” he guessed before looking back towards Yugito, “I think out of the rookie nine, only team seven and team eight have been affected but the Chuunin Exams will tell us for certain when we see all of them in action.”

“That’ll have to wait for the second exam then, when we implement our plan, “ she said with a nod and paused before blowing out a breath and turning back towards him, “Anything else you needed to tell me?”

_ Keep an eye on Sasuke Uchiha _ , he thought but with one dodgy glance at Itachi, he decided it could wait till later.

“No, nothing except for a reminder to be ready by the time I come around to pick you up.”

He’d said the words before he could think and almost instantly afterwards, he had to acknowledge how date-like it sounded. He’d never actually been on a date before, minus Yugito, and didn’t actually know what to expect for them. Except where they were going to wasn’t a date, of course.

“Okay,” she said to him softly and Kakashi took that as his cue to get up and leave.

“See you then,” he stated before making his exit without looking back twice.

* * *

 

“Kakashi was acting suspiciously today,” Sasuke noted and watched for Hinata’s expression, who gazed back at him curiously.

“He did seem much happier,” she pointed out, her voice quiet but much steadier than it was before they first met. 

“It’s weird,” he muttered, as he keenly snuck at a glance at her. While she busied herself gazing at the flower pots and the restaurant signs, he looked back down to his feet. Then at the streets filling with people, comprised primarily of children as the school day ended for the civilians fifteen minutes after theirs did.

Hinata was always a bit of an annoyance to him but at the very least she didn’t obsess or bug him for no reason. In fact, if she got over her crush on Naruto and dressed better, she might just be tolerable. But might was a strong word and he didn’t want to use it too lightly. Almost, then.

“We should be happy for him,” Hinata added gently, stopping just long enough to get a closer look at a blue vase with white flowers. He didn’t know what they were called but they looked too delicate. He sighed, hoping she was get bored of them soon and pick up the pace.

Sasuke was walking Hinata home—as one does to show pointed preferential treatment to another teammate—but he didn’t want to waste any more time than necessary.

“I like when he’s unhappy,” he admitted, just to see how she’d react.

Hinata’s brows sunk, her nose wrinkling and her lips pursing. Seconds later, she turned back towards him and asked, her chin tipping up in confusion, “Why do you hate him so much?”

He blinked at her.

“Did you just ask me a question?” he asked her in return and watched her cheeks heat up and her eyes begin to shine as if any second she could begin to cry. Sasuke felt more than a bit ill at the prospect and made sure to take a step back in case she wanted to hug him. He’d been tricked far too many times when he was younger, when girls would pretend to need help then go in to do weird things to him. Like kiss him or something equally as disgusting.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, “you d-don’t have to answer.”

Hinata didn’t seem the type though, so Sasuke allowed himself to relax just a little bit. He still wasn’t going to answer her stupid question though.

“How much farther is your house?” he asked instead, stuffing his hands into his pocket and facing the street.

“It’s close by,” she explained, and looked at him warily, “I can go the rest of the way on my own.”

He blinked at her body language and for a moment couldn’t comprehend why it felt like she was purposely sending him way. Sasuke frowned at her suspiciously but decided not to bring it up—there was only so much talking he could handle in a day.

“Alright, watch out and don’t come to the testing facility sick tomorrow. We need you,” he said absent-mindedly, scratching at the back of his head. It was only a second later that he realized how it must’ve sounded to her and found himself reddening just a bit, “We need you for the three-man squad. Can’t do it without you because of technicalities.”

“I understand,” she answered softly and smiled.

He nodded towards her and, in refusing to let it strain on any longer with formalities, he turned on his heel and began walking towards home.

* * *

 

“You never call on me for advice before, what’s changed?” Jiraiya gave him a look.

“I met someone,” Kakashi said, returning the look.

The older man choked on his spit before releasing a high-pitched cackle, “Really!?  _ You _ ?” Kakashi turned on his feet to leave before the wheezing Sannin reached out to stop him. “Wait, wait, I take it back. Kind of,” he added, chuckling once last time before meeting Kakashi’s gaze and breaking into ringing peals of laughter.

Knowing it would be a long wait, he seated himself and crossed his arms with a clear look of boredom on his face, hoping it would be enough to calm him down.

“Okay,” he breathed in, and breathed out slowly but kept on giggling with the most annoying expression on his face, “okay, I’m sorry. It’s just surprising, is all.”

“Trust me, I’m just as surprised.”

“Well, go on, explain. Who is it? What does she look like? Is the problem the sex? Cause I can give you some tips. You know, there’s rules to things like this,  it’s  _ three _ fing—.”

“No, it’s not that,” Kakashi interrupted before it could go on further, cheeks already filling with heat he was glad didn’t show, “it’s just that...”

He should have never come actually. Why did he come again?

“Is she unattainable? Married? Recently widowed? I’ve been there myself but Kakashi, with your air of mystery and the face I think you have, you shouldn’t have to worry so much about it. Just be yourself but...not as conservative.”

“No, none of that,” he muttered, frustrated, “it’s Yugito.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

He sobered up, “and...the problems you’re having with her? Aside from, you know, the obvious.” At Kakashi’s look, he held his hands up helplessly, “Don’t get me wrong, she’s a beautiful girl from what I’ve seen. But does she do anything strange in be—.”

“The problem is that I  _ have _ no problem with  _ her _ . It’s problems with me and,” he tried to find the word, “ _ distance _ .”

Jiraiya regarded him with his finger to his chin in thought, “Explain?”

Kakashi was sorely regretting having comed at all.

He took in a deep breath and retrained his face to be expressionless, using a dead tone of voice to speak. And he told him everything; from the feelings of inadequacy, fear that it would be a repeat of the past, and all the way to the acceptance he had been trying to come to. Acceptance that he had always struggled with.

Back when his father died, he’d cried for days. He remembered tucking himself into bed, trying and failing to forget the sensation of cold blood under his feet and the scent of it soused in the air. It took weeks, if not months, to get the smell of it out of his nose. The floorboards were never the same and it haunted him still, the questions that hung in the air unspoken.

_ Why did you leave me? _

It was perhaps the most repeated question in his head, right after;  _ what did I do wrong? _

“You couldn’t have done anything,” Jiraiya said softly, looking uncomfortable, “you were a kid at the time, you couldn’t have stopped what he did. Nobody could have.”

Kakashi looked at him, not believing but too tired to argue with him on it.

Jiraiya regarded him for a long moment, and at first it was like he too didn’t want to be there. His hand came out to pat his shoulder, and the silence pervaded, his mouth opening and closing in his hesitance to speak.

“I just want a clear answer,” Kakashi decided quietly, bowing his head and looking to his toes. He took a deeper breath than he had the last and finally asked, “Do you think it would be worth it if I tried?”

“With that girl?” Jiraiya paused, uncertain, “she’s not exactly locally available. You’d have to deal with the long-distance and hiding it from everyone in the village that might have something to say about it.”

“Ignoring things like that,” he added.

With raised brows, Jiraiya echoed his sighs, “It’s not everyday I see you like this.”

Kakashi gave him an impatient look.

“Okay, okay, this is...love we’re talking about. Something that not all of us gets to experience,” Jiraiya seemed more depressed for saying it but continued, “I gave it up myself and I know where it gets you,” Jiraiya told him in all seriousness, his eyes looking pained for reasons Kakashi didn’t want to know about. “Don’t give it up if you don’t want to. At least not when there’s still a chance for you and her. Do your best and even if it smolders out and a piece of you regrets it, at least you know you tried.”

It wasn’t optimistic, or pessimistic. It was unfortunately real.

Kakashi left with the words weighing on his mind.

* * *

 

“This one looks interesting,” Yugito said, taking the book from the stand and holding it up for Itachi to see. “It’s from the new arrivals section.”

“It looks like a mystery,” he noted and took it into his hand to flip the book and read the summary. He nodded, “It’s a mystery.”

“Isn’t that what your book is?” she asked curiously, wondering if he’d actually give her an answer in his  _ Takeshi _ act.

Itachi snorted, “No, our story is about a train killing its passengers before they can find their stop.”

“So, a horror story.”

“No, an action,” he replied in a dry tone, his lips quirking up to let her know it was a joke.

“Okay, well, I’m going to stick with this book,” she told him, taking the mystery novel from him, “you have fun with your action packed adventure story.”

“Will do,” he called to her as she went to the cashier to pay for her goods.

“Hurry up, Takeshi, I’ll be outside,” she called to him when she was done and watched him wave her away before stepping out of the store. 

The summer heat in Konoha was a different sort of heat than she had been expecting. It wasn’t as humid and was much drier, making her feel like she’d need to bath twice a day to keep her skin hydrated. Already, her lips her chapping, which she tried to hide with a darker lipstick. It wasn’t working so well.

She sighed loudly and languorously as she stretched her arms and muscles. Despite that, she didn’t feel like she was standing out in the noise with everyone around her yelling out prices and with shoppers practically swarming.

Yugito liked to see it and did her best not to appear unlike a resident of Konoha, even keeping her hitai-ate at home with her combat outfit. It was much simpler just wearing a tank top and shorts and feeling almost like she had always been there.

This was what she would have grown up seeing, if she’d been born there. Sights that didn’t seem familiar to her now but looked inviting and warm. She could see how the village could be so loved, with the active and energetic citizens and the large trees that the tops could be seen of even standing at ground level. Even more iconic was the Hokage Rock, which was strange seeing. She’d only vaguely remembered what it was supposed to look like and had heard about in her classes when she was younger.

Kumo didn’t really have anything like it—and she’d been raised to think it was due to the ego of their Kages. Getting to see it in person made it look more like a tradition though.

At the very least, it was an interesting place.

Yugito went into her bag to open up one of her books, flipping to the the first page.

“Nee-san!”

She ignored the call, sure that it was for someone else and skimmed over the first page, hoping Itachi finished soon so she could read in peace.

“Nee-san!” the shout came again, this time closer.

It was then that she looked up, only to see Naruto barreling through the crowd and working his way towards her with a grin on his face.

She hadn’t been expecting it but Naruto jumped towards her the second he was close enough, shouting out gleefully and repeatedly, “Nee-san! Nee-san!” His arms came around her middle and he squeezed his face into her chest.

Laughing, she ruffled the top of his hair and felt her nails hitting the top of his headband. Pulling away from him, she grinned, “Finally became a real shinobi, did you?”

“I did, dattebayo!” he chirped, grinning up at her before the realization of his actions seemed to hit him. He flushed bright red and stumbled away from her, stuttering out excuses. Yugito continued to smile, reaching out her hands to bring him into a hug.

“I’m glad to see you again,” she told him in a whisper before saying conversationally and detaching, “I’m surprised you remembered me.”

“Of course I did, Nee-san,” he muttered out and blushed when he met her gaze, “you’re family, dattebayo.”

Maybe it was the sentimental mood she had been in before his arrival, or the the warmth that spread through her at his words, but nevertheless, she teared up. Only slightly and she easily brushed them away but a small part of her would have been ready to bawl had she been given the chance.

Naruto looked at her, concerned and confused, “Are you alright!?”

“I am!” she told him cheerfully.

He grinned and when she smiled back just as vibrantly, he paused and blinked, “Hey, where did your hitai-ate go? Are you spying on someone again?” He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, crossing his arms and straightening his back, “I’m still a Konoha-nin first, got it?”

Yugito laughed, “Good, I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”

He brightened at her words and though he seemed happy, it was almost like he was holding back  _ how _ happy.

Yugito felt giddy but decided to tell him the truth of it, “I’m here for the Chuunin Exams, actually.” 

Naruto blinked at her again, “Woah, dattebayo! Really? I’m going to be taking the Chuunin Exams too!” Then he frowned at her, “Didn’t think you’d be a genin though, Nee-san.”

She gently corrected him, patting him on the shoulder, “No, I’ll be here to help supervise.”

For the Kumo-nin, at least.

Honestly, she didn’t have much work to do. Not with the jounin teachers doing their part and watching out for their students. The most she needed to do was get status reports and keep in mind who needed what. Other than that, she was just there under Ay’s orders to be. Most Kage arrived only at the third and most important exam after all.

“Cool!” he exclaimed, “Will you be there to watch me fight then?”

“Uh-huh,” Yugito hummed out and he jumped in excitement.  _ Among other things,  _ she thought.

“Then, you’ll be able to see all of my new awesome moves! You’ll get to see my clones, and, and my tree walking!”

Yugito gave his hair another ruffle before drawing her hand away and saying with certainty, “You’ll do fine, Naruto. You have friends that you can depend on, after all.”

Naruto didn’t look entirely convinced, before huffing indignantly “You said something similar about Kurama too, but most of the time he doesn’t even want to talk! And  _ don’t _ even get me started on my teammates. Hinata is fine and all but she faints all the time and even fainted when we were on the Wave mission! Right in front of Zabuza Momochi, this really mean looking guy, and I have to admit, it saved her life but it’s still really scary to see it! And then, and then there’s  _ Sasuke _ . He’s a complete pain in the ass and if I didn’t have him on my time, I’d be infinitely happier!” 

“But isn’t it fun? The bickering?” she asked, thinking of her own genin days. She’d actually hadn’t seen her old teammates in a while. Tamaki and Yusa were...busy. Or at least, she was.

Tamaki used to get on her nerves to the upteemth degree but now, the memories seemed like days she wouldn’t have minded returning back to.

“Eh, sometimes it is,” Naruto admitted but went back to scowling, “it might be more fun if he didn’t actually hate me enough to want me dead.”

“I don’t hate you enough to want you dead,” a new voice interjected and Yugito wasn’t surprised to see Sasuke standing behind him. “Stop being such a dumbass and myself we can get along better.”

“I’m not a dumbass!” Naruto whined, “you just think I’m one!”

Sasuke gave him a look before sighing and shaking his head, “You’re so dumb, you’re not even self-aware.”

Yugito blinked and took a very noticeable step away from the both of them. Naruto gave her a long-suffering look and gestured towards the savage genin with a helpless wave of his arm. Yugito suddenly saw first hand what he had to put up with.

She didn’t really know what advice to give him in that moment. To be clear, in the past it would have been her saying that to Tamaki so she didn’t have much ground to stand on.

_ I really need to go apologize to him _ , she thought to herself with an inward sigh.

“Who are you even talking to, dobe?” Sasuke asked and narrowed his eyes at her.

She squinted her eyes back at him in return and though it was petty, she wasn’t about to lose to a kid. (In the end, the vicious parts of her never fully receded completely.)

“She’s my, my sister,” Naruto said, sliding a glance in her direction.

She beamed back at him.

“No way, she looks familiar...” Sasuke continued to glare at her before his eyes suddenly went wide, “Anyaki!”

_ Shit! _ The nickname hadn’t died, liked she’d prayed to the universe. They’d failed her once again.

Yugito reddened and shook her head vehemently, “No! That’s a cruel joke you’re brother played on me and you should forget about it.”

Sasuke and Naruto both stared up at her, and the three of them stood equally confused as what to say or do.

Then the door to the store opened and out walked—out walked Itachi.

“Oh my god!” she suddenly yelled as she latched onto his wrist and attempted to drag him away from the genin before something awful happened, “I left something in an oven and we need to go back quick!”

She was too late.

“What’s gotten into you? We don’t even have an oven,” he muttered and weakly tried to pull away. Then he halted like a stone dropping into a path and she couldn’t move him even a centimeter. She watched him look at Sasuke, watched him blink in surprise.

If it wasn’t obvious before, it would be now.

“We do!” she tried desperately and one last time.

“Itachi?” Sasuke was asking, confused and uncertain before jerking his gaze away and looking to Yugito for answers. Itachi stared and she blanched.

_ Fuck, fuck, fuck. _

Then her hero appeared, dazzling like sunlight and dropping in as if universe had sent him in, finally to answer one of her prayers.

“Yo,” he said and she had never heard anything so beautiful.

“Kakashi-sensei, what’re you doing here, dattebayo!?” Naruto cried out, alarmed and looking around their circle of drama. Understandably he could make just as sense as she could make of it. None at all.

“I see you’ve met my girlfriend,” Kakashi said amiably, impassive and calm, “and her brother, Takeshi.”

_ Oh my  _ god _ , _ Yugito thought, alarmed and reddening all at once as the words replayed in her head. It would be doing that for the next week, without a doubt.

“Uh, yes, my boyfriend” she said dumbly, as she blinked at the back of Kakashi’s head, “and my brother, Takeshi...who is my brother and that is his name.”

Behind her, she could hear Itachi snickering. She promised inwardly to kick him in the shin for it.

“You’re lying,” Sasuke muttered, his eyes trained on Itachi, but confused, “she can’t be his sister and also Naruto’s sister.”

“Our family history is very complicated,” she said confidently, thinking that Takeshi’s hair was blond enough to fit.

“Well, that’s enough of that, I was just about to take these two out for dinner and you can’t come.”

“Not fair! I want to eat ramen with Nee-san again!”

“We will,” Yugito promised, “I’ll be here for the duration of the exams, after all.”

“For now, we’re heading to a place where we can’t be bothered. Don’t try looking for us, see you tomorrow,” Kakashi said, wrapping his arm around her waist and nodding towards Itachi for the three of them to leave.

Strange enough, Itachi was smiling. He didn’t look any worse for wear after seeing for the first time in years. Instead, he looked happy. She would be sure to ask about it when they were alone.

Looking back at Sasuke, who glared daggers at them, it didn’t seem the feeling was mutual.

* * *

“Your dress looks nice,” Kakashi informed her the moment he came through her balcony door.

“Thank you,” she tried to get out without sounding like she was about to have a heart attack. Which she was.

“Almost wish I didn’t come as Sukea,” he mused, not looking worried at all.

“I’m glad you did,” she told him miserably as she watched the strangers milling around the two of them take a long good look at them. It was probably because his hand was at the small of her back and gazing at her like he could kiss her at any second. Just imagine if he’d gone with her as  _ himself _ .

Chaos.

Yugito wasn’t even sure what she should be doing at the get together. It was far more formal than anything she’d ever been to, even  _ with _ Ay. He liked informal settings the most and kept most of the official meetings to a party setting that he could get comfortable in. Yugito had grown accustomed to drinking for it and able to discuss politics even at a state of sputtering intoxication.

In Konoha, it was entirely different.

They were drinking tea and there looked to be a ceremonial quality to everyone’s movements, doing things she would have never thought to do if she hadn’t seen them do it first. It was all that she was doing not to make a fool of herself, imitating them as best she could. Already she’d been there for a few hours and felt like she’d met everyone under the moon and sun as she’d made the rounds introducing herself. Now all she could use to cope with was that it was supposed to be ending soon.

The only thing that pleased her to see was the other foreigners looking just as out of place as she was.

“Yugito Nii?” a deep, intrusive voice asked, a large chakra presence moving towards her.  She frowned, looking up only to blanch at the sight of the speaker's face.

She jumped away from Kakashi and folded into a right angled bow to show her expected respect.

“It’s so very nice to meet you again,” Yugito lied to Fugaku Uchiha, feeling as if she could be murdered in that very spot if she didn’t toe the line. Still, while he couldn’t see her face, she couldn’t resist a cheeky smile and the feeling of superiority she had to force herself into herself so her self-doubt couldn’t take hold.

When she rose back up, she wiped her face clean of any expression. She still couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye, too hesitant to check if he had his Sharingan out and too afraid that she’d blurt something stupid out.

“You’re the woman who took my son in,” he said quietly, almost too quiet for her to hear.

Yugito stilled, but forced herself to nod.

The only thing letting her keep her calm was the reassuring hand at her back.

Fugaku looked hesitantly at Kakashi before holding out his hand to her.

“Please shake my hand,” he said with a diplomatic smile, “it’s a custom in Kumo, is it not?”

_ An outdated one _ , she thought but did as he asked, attempting not to react when their palms touched. They shook and Yugito thought that would be the end of it and she’d be able to exchange basic pleasantries and leave. She looked at him with a raised brow before feeling the sensation of paper against her skin. She took it into her sleeve.

He nodded towards her and nodded again towards Kakashi.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’m sure you have many others to meet.”

Then he walked away, as suddenly as he had come.

“What did he give you?” Kakashi asked in her ear.

“A handshake,” she responded, noticing a few eyes on them.

Awkwardly, she waved at them and turned to Kakashi, “I think we can leave now.”

“Wonderful,” he agreed.

“Would save me from meeting the Hokage then,” she decided, “let’s go then.”

She took his hand in hers and the both of them attempted to make their way out of the banquet hall. They skirted the edges of the wall, keeping out of everyone’s way. They tried not to be noticed, meeting no one’s gaze.

If she’d been looking, she might had noticed someone closing in on her.

Kakashi tapped her shoulder and she stopped, looking to him first before meeting Hiruzen Sarutobi’s gaze. She could feel herself pale but forced herself to smile as if she were happy to see him.

“Yugito-san,” he called out to her with a smile, “the Raikage’s proxy for the exams, if my reports were correct.”

“They were,” she told him and went to bow for the millionth time that day, “it’s a pleasure to make acquaintance with an esteemed Kage such as you. I’m humbled.”

“You’ll be joining me as one soon enough as one, won’t you?”

Yugito flushed and brought her hand up to laugh politely, “If all goes well.”

Kakashi stiffened beside her but she couldn’t spare a glance for him, too focused on not fucking up her official meeting.

“I’ve heard quite a bit about you,” he said and she tried not to tense.

_ I’m sure you have, old man _ .

“I’m flattered,” she said to him instead.

“And who is this with you?” Hiruzen looked at Kakashi in surprise and a hint of smile, “he looks familiar to me.”

“A friend,” she explained before Kakashi could interject and embarrass her.

Too late, once again. She did all things to no avail of the outcome.

Hiruzen must’ve eyed the way her ‘ _ friend _ ’ was eyeing her, because he winked at her and said, “I’ll leave you to your friend then.”

_ Oh my god _ , she thought incredulously,  _ did he just insinuate what I think he did? _

Yugito tried not to scream but in her heart, she was shrieking.

Fugaku’s note forgotten in her sleeve, she nodded outwardly.

“If you’ll excuse us, it was a pleasure meeting you,” she said, bowing one last time before dragging Kakashi away with her.

It was only when they were alone, outside, that she took a moment to turn to him.

“Augh, that was so  _ awkward _ ,” she muttered, hand still in his and hoping just a little bit that he didn’t let go.

“Yugito,” he said her name quietly and she met his gaze, surprised.

“I’ve heard my name so often today, it’s starting to get old,” she said, attempting humor but feeling that there was a disconnect. He looked at her, his expression confused and she soon came to match him. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re becoming the Raikage?” he asked, sounding as normal as usual but his expression didn’t match it.

“Did I not tell you?” she wondered and tried for a smile, “It’s why I’ve been so busy.”

He nodded, shoulders relaxing as he blew out a breath. His eyes smiled at her and her tense shoulders collapsed.

“So are we really dating now?” he asked her and to her expression, he laughed, poking her in the side, “I’ll treat you to tekkadon if you say yes.”

“Seriously?” she asked, treasuring the feeling of his warm hand in hers.

He nodded, looking more hesitant now. As if he hadn’t meant to ask.

“It doesn’t matter to you then?” Yugito asked quietly, uncertain, “That I’m from Kumo and that we’ll have to beat the distance for at least a decade—if we even make it that long!—and, and that I’ll be the leader of an entire nation, or that I could be entirely wrong about the future and the world ends instead! O even the possibility that I could actually be an insane jinchuuriki you’ll regret having taken seriously? None of that matters?”

_ It’s dating, not marriage _ , she reminded herself but her concerns remained the same.

Dating at least had to have a semblance of sincerity to work.

Kakashi shook his head, his eyes smiling before gently chiding her,“Anything sounds bad when you put it like that, so let’s not overthink it that much.”

It was sudden, too sudden but perhaps two years in the making.

She liked him. She loved him.

“Right, ok,” she blew out a breath to calm herself and then couldn’t help the giggle that slipped through. Yugito grinned at him, tugging on his hand and very enthusiastically said, “Tekkadon!”

She meant to say yes.

* * *

 

**Four Letter Word - End**

 


	25. Five Lives Forever Changed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have an announcement! I have a new discord server. It’s basically a place where I can talk to you guys in a group setting and where you can keep up to date with all the bullshit I’m working on. Like a book club for my writing, lmao.
> 
> Link; https://discord.gg/RdST4nM

 

**Five Lives Forever Changed**

* * *

 

Kakashi walked home that night and everything was quiet.

The stars twinkled a little brighter, the streets looked a little different. Nothing seemed so boring as before and it was the oddest feeling he had felt sense departing Yugito with a kiss to her lips. Like he was seeing the world for the first time or perhaps, coming home after a long stay away.

He relaxed his shoulders, sighed into the crisp midnight air, and walked as if he were not rushed in the least.

Kakashi expected to feel something entirely different. Not the ease of pressure in his lungs and the knot in his shoulder working itself loose, and especially not the thoughts that were crossing his mind.

She'd tasted like rice and tuna and strawberries when they kissed, the scent that lingered in the air around her as if it were a second skin. Just a hint of sake was in there too but she didn't seem to like drinking as much as he did. Which was in a way, adorable.

He could picture her wrinkled nose and the quick shake of her head against stronger spirits. She had even disliked the sake served to them that night. Perhaps she'd never had it served hot, where he tended to like the flavor best. Still, he felt—he felt happy.

Funny how foreign the feeling was, but it reminded him of better times. With Minato, when it was just the two of them. It was such a long time ago and at best, the memories were difficult to know if they were real or just things he'd dreamed in a lonely afternoon.

Some of them, he knew for certain though, and they were a comforting weight. Like a warm blanket over the pain and feeling of loss during the realizations that he did not remember some things as well as he would like. The first meal they had shared came to mind, and somehow he could still recall the look of embarrassment when Kakashi gave his cooking a compliment.

Previously, he had been so cold to his new teacher. Having learned a lesson from his father, he hadn't wanted a repeat of the past, had wanted to keep to himself and refused to be moved on the matter. But in the second week that they'd known each other, Minato insisted on the both of them meeting at his home for dinner.

" _ Why?" _ Kakashi had asked, bewildered by the absurd request.

Minato hadn't budged, his expression something fierce and determined (a familiar look his son had inherited),  _ "Your diet is awful, consisting of just bread and rice and  _ junk _. I intend to teach you how to cook." _

At the time, Kakashi had hidden the roll of his eyes. He was unconvinced that they could even make time for it, especially with their schedules being so busy.

But his teacher hadn't lied and teach him to cook he had. Many things; like his favorite, salted broiled saury and rice balls and even mochi for a sweet snack if he was ever feeling up to it. Mostly he wasn't, but sometimes for celebrations he'd bring a box of them to Kushina and Minato so they wouldn't have to bother making them. They always did say he had a talent for it, cooking. Beyond his training, it was a refreshing change of pace.

Something less demanding and more of something to...enjoy.

It was the first glimpse he had taken into how Minato must have viewed him and their relationship. Strange analogy as it was, it made him understand for the first time how his teacher must have felt, like a chef pouring ingredients and mixing and hoping for a good result.

" _ How did you learn all of this? Did your dad teach you?" _ Kakashi had wondered out loud to him one evening, begrudging his inability to disconnect from the man who seemed to intent on having them be close.

" _ No, a...friend of mine did, _ " then he had blushed and it had been the first indication of what was to come.

He hadn't realized it yet but a storm had been brewing for months; one with the strength of an oxen pulling three loaded wagons and with the looks of a whip made out of fire taut and ready to strike. Worse was the adoration clear in her gaze and the fear it struck into his heart.

Kushina, a  _ girl _ .

One who bugged Kakashi even  _ more _ , and seemed hell bent on seeing him at least once a week for a family dinner even though none of them were actually family and were all orphans with little to no business seeing each other. Perhaps that's why he liked them—loved them.

They didn't have much of a reason but they did it anyway.

"Minato must have felt this way too, about her," Kakashi realized and whistled out wistfully, hands in his pocket while he paused long enough to look at the empty playground.

In another world, Naruto could have played on the swing sets there with each parent at his side. Grinning and with no care in the world, things would have been different. Better. Kakashi might have never met Yugito but it was...she might have been worth giving up just to see that.

Kakashi looked to the sky, where the both of them might have somehow been. Most likely happy there, most likely happy to see how far their son had got on his own, and perhaps in disappointment at Kakashi. He couldn't blame them.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to the star-filled sky, "I should have been there for him. Like you were for me."

He should have been there for a lot of people. Much more than he had been for anyone in his life.

Perhaps that was why he felt he could give Yugito up so easily. It was best answered simply. Kakashi knew he did not deserve her or the happiness he felt. Not when he'd failed to earn it, or even felt prepared to return it to her, and especially not when he had never returned it to anyone else before.

Kakashi sighed into the air and hoped that whatever new memories they crafted together, he wouldn't make her sad. At the very least, he wanted her to be happy.

So happy, in fact, that she wouldn't mind him sticking around.

* * *

"Do your best, N-Naruto-kun," Hinata practiced in the mirror, seeing her face morph in concentration. The redness to her cheeks was still ever present but her delivery was getting better! Kind of. She could certainly do without the stutter every time she said  _ his _ name out loud.

The once named Hyuuga heiress took a deep breath and released it very slowly in the hopes her heart would follow. It didn't.

"It's okay," she told herself, and trying not to let her panic engulf her, "everyone is nervous before an exam. Things will go fine! There's Naruto-kun and his clones if we get into trouble and of course, Sasuke-san will be there and he's always so impressive..."

Instantly her face twisted like she had been sucking on a lemon.

It was a bitter thing to admit in saying that Sasuke, the worst tormenter of Naruto, was impressive.

Hinata shook her head very forcefully before slapping her hands against her cheeks to snap herself out of her thoughts, "Doesn't matter! He's still a teammate and is...a better one than me."

She wilted.

It was at that moment that the door to the bathroom opened and the head of her little sister popped in with not even a hint of hesitancy in her actions. If only she would be like Hanabi.  _ She'd _ never faint at the first sign of danger on a mission where she had been entrusted to protect the client.

It was a fact that Hinata would never be able to live down. The only bright side to the huge embarrassment who complimented her as if she had done it  _ on purpose. _ It was only Sasuke who had explained the reason why—her bumbling idiot self had fainted just as she needed to duck from an oncoming shuriken attack. As if she couldn't have just deflected it like a normal person! Even her teacher had told her not to worry but she  _ did _ .

What if something happened again? What if it happened and she was still  _ useless _ and someone  _ died _ ?

"You look worried," Hanabi noted, entering fully when Hinata didn't tell her to go away.

"It's just nerves for the test today. I'll be fine." She even smiled just to be more convincing.

Her sister squinted at her in that accusatory manner of hers, making it clear that she wasn't buying it. Hinata held up her hands up in a show of peace, hoping that the young girl didn't go off the rails to lecture her again. Her sister picked up too much from their father sometimes.

"It's true," Hinata went on, "the second exams is a very big hurdle that not many teams pass."

Hanabi released a sigh before nodding. Then she just stared curiously while Hinata set aside her toothbrush to dry and finished packing up her pack for the long duration away from home. She already had another toothbrush packed away, but travel size.

It was comforting to think about. If Hinata wasn't prepared one way, she was in another.

She could do this. She could look Naruto in the eye, ignore the rush of anxiety and the thoughts in her mind telling her to run away before her heart could give out.

"I  _ can _ do this," she whispered to herself and after giving her sister a kiss to her forehead, she left with a determination to succeed.

* * *

She had been prepared for the awkwardness; had spent the entire night worrying what they might say to each other and envisioned the possibilities that wouldn't give him second thoughts. There weren't many that she could think of.

So, as he entered her room and before he could say anything, she kissed him over the mask and refused to let him speak.

He pulled away just long enough to slip down his mask and the familiar feeling of his lips on hers was enough to evaporate her concerns. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his back and sunk into his body to the point that she wouldn't be surprised if she made an indentation. With a soft sigh tickling her lips, he shifted to kiss her on the cheek and moved to gaze at her in concern highlighted by his lifted brows.

"You called me here for something," he reminded her, "is everything alright?"

"Yes," she told him with a pleased smile, her mind still stuck on the sensations that lingered. Then, as he continued to stare at her with the inadequate answer, she snapped back into attention and refocused, "Itachi will be here soon, I have something to show the both of you."

"And that would be?" he asked, shifting the both of them until his back was to the bed and she could see them in a mirror atop a vanity. It was strange to see herself in his arms and odder yet was the thought that it was the vision a stranger might see. In other words, a flip of perspective.

His gaze on hers was so warm and her expression softer than she realized it could be.

The blush in her cheeks deepened and she pressed her face into his shoulder with a thankful sigh. She breathed his scent in and let it fill her thoughts for a moment before she had to face the real world.

"Yugito?"

"I'm fine," she mumbled before pulling away entirely and making her way to the hideaway spot she'd created with the note in mind, "I haven't actually read it yet, thought it would be better to wait until the team gathered."

"Gai is coming then?" Kakashi asked, surprise flitting across his face.

Her face screwed up, "He declined to go because of a date with  _ Saki-chan _ as he so sweetly called her."

With a knowing look, he grunted in understanding at the explanation before lifting a brow, "Looks like we're missing an opportune moment."

Yugito grinned but shook her head in bemusement. Thumbing the note in her hand, she sighed.

"Still kind of weird of him," Yugito muttered, "He's not the type to deflect a mission. Though I did tell him it probably wouldn't be important and we can just fill him in on the details later."

"He's in the honeymoon stage, I believe. It's not everyday he gets a girlfriend," Kakashi said, apparently not surprised. Then he gave her a look that if she gave it words said,  _ I'm jealous, come kiss me! _

So she did—a quick chaste action that came to her as naturally as breathing.

No chance for awkwardness there.

A knock came at the door and with a little reluctance, Yugito parted from Kakashi and went to answer.

At the sight of Itachi, Yugito pulled him in and shut the door. Turning to the boys with a grin on her face, she held up the note from Fugaku and tried not to panic. She had no idea what would be inside and though it wasn't very possible for it to hold a weapon, she couldn't be too careful.

"Do you think the Sharingan scan this for danger?" she asked and passed it over to Kakashi, who shifted it in his palm. Pulling back his headband, it was not the first time she'd seen the eye but it still gave her a chill. Uneasy, Yugito looked off to the side and tried not to make her discomfort obvious.

After staring at it for a second, Kakashi folded it open. It was a jolt to her system and she started forward, concerned but felt her pulse slow when she noticed nothing bad was happening.

"Don't scare me like that," she muttered and snatched the paper from his hand before looking down at the writing. Finely printed and as if whoever wrote it had calligraphy training, the lettering was beyond her skill level and even a little hard to read because of it.

_ Thank you for taking care of my son. _

"Is that it?" Itachi asked, bearing an emotionless mask.

Yugito made a face, "It can't be it. Maybe if we—."

Itachi snatched the paper and thumbed with his nail at the edges. Yugito wasn't even sure anything was happening but before her very eyes, a side of the paper separated and peeled back. Beneath, the lettering was less visible and not any easier to read.

"He's asking for you to join the Hokage in a meeting with him," Itachi deciphered and Yugito squinted at the text.

"Seems suspicious," she muttered, then shrugged, "does it give a date and time?"

"No, only to request a meeting with the Hokage prior to the final exam."

"Well, this was the weirdest thing I could have imagined happening," she mumbled, then leaned her cheek against Itachi's shoulder and looked up at him through her lashes. "What do you want us to do?"

"That's mean of you," he said quietly, "leaving the choice to me."

For some reason, she smiled at that.

"Well, you don't have to decide now," she informed him, patting his forearm and disengaging long enough to join Kakashi on the bed, "At the very least, we have a few weeks to think about it."

"And plan, just in case," Kakashi added, looking up at Itachi. It was his own way of showing concern.

Itachi blew out a breath and though he was still in his disguise, it was the first time since arriving in Konoha that she could fully see only  _ Itachi _ in his expressions.

"First, can we go out to get something to eat?" he asked, shifting in place where he stood.

Yugito hopped up, excited, "Of course! Let's grab Kakashi's students and make an event of it!"

"Yeah," Itachi agreed with a smile of his own, looking anywhere but at her face. It was as if he was giddy in his own excitement and perhaps unconsciously, he had already made it to the door, "I'd like to see him before I decide."

* * *

"That's my brother isn't it?" Sasuke hissed under his breath toward Kakashi, though Yugito could hear it quiet clearly. When no one answered him, he sighed, "Okay, I understand but I want answers later."

Yugito released a breath, exasperated but continued to slurp up the noodles in front of her.

"Are you and Nee-chan really dating?" Naruto asked, squinting and somehow still breathing after inhaling three bowls. It was the first thing he had said since being initially invited out and she couldn't help but laugh at his curiosity.

"I'm crazy in love with her," Kakashi said out loud in a very flippant, unfeeling tone.

"He's my stalker," Yugito added, quite lovingly as she kicked him in the shin.

"H-How did you meet?" Hinata whisper-asked and it took a second for Yugito to think of what to say.

Then she blushed and pressed her hands to her face, squirming as she said, "I thought I would die! The moment he saw me, he was so intense, and then he reached out to me and—."

"Hey," Kakashi interjected, pressing a hand to her shoulder, "don't go giving them the wrong impression."

"Eh?" she blinked innocently, "They already know you're a pervert, so what's the harm in being honest?"

First there was silence, and then, Kakashi leaned in to whisper in her ear, "Otherwise, you'll be  _ punished _ ."

He pulled away with a grin.

For a moment, she could barely even swallow but somehow managed as she collected herself. She recovered quickly, leaning on her elbows to look at him through her batting lashes.

"Hm~?" Yugito snickered, "And you have it in you to do that?"

"Yugito-san," Itachi as Takeshi interrupted, "how delicious is your ramen?"

"Very delicious," Yugito responded, grinning before taking another mouthful.

"Adults are  _ weird _ ," Naruto muttered, wide-eyed and with his cheeks as red as ripe tomatoes.

She fought off the temptation to squeeze them.

After all was said, amidst the bickering between Sasuke and Naruto, she never did get to. She distracted herself by playing footsie with Kakashi and ignored the tension of Sasuke's gazes towards Itachi. By the end, Hinata barely managed to restrain from fainting and excused herself early, which introduced perhaps the most surprising moment of the meal.

Sasuke stood up and held out his arm for the Hyuuga to take.

She looked at him hesitantly.

"Come on," he muttered, "I'll walk you home."

"You d-don't need t-to," she told him softly.

"If you pass out randomly on your way home, I don't want to be responsible for it," he said, his tone sharp and firm.

With a shaking hand, she placed it on his forearm—which didn't seem to satisfy him as he adjusted her hold to hook around his arm.

"You can lean on me," he told her, clearly unhappy with the situation.

Yugito didn't know at all what she was seeing. Naruto was too busy stuffing his face for her to ask him.

"I'll go with," Itachi suddenly said, standing up.

Sasuke blinked but said nothing as he nodded his understanding.

The three of them left silently.

"How weird," she murmured before turning back to her third bowl.

Yugito decided to take a page out of Naruto's book and left those questions for later. Eating was more important.

* * *

Itachi had been expecting to feel pain when he looked at his little brother, but rather, he could barely contain himself from humming his joy. Just like the first time he spotted him walking in the crowds, the first day he'd arrived back in Konoha.

At a glance, everything looked the same—the people, the streets, the shops.

But when Itachi looked closer, there was no denying it.

It all looked mismatched. Old faces swapped with new faces. Stores he'd once frequented gone or replaced. Even the scent—once inviting and commonplace—became distant and estranged. Itachi saw nothing familiar in it. Nothing that truly reminded him of home.

Then he saw his brother, head poking tellingly around the bend of a corner. Beside him had been a girl and the two of them had walked without a word exchanged between them. She looked nervous and his brother looked...as he did every time their mother had told them to be kinder to strangers.

A mixture between earnest and annoyed.

Itachi couldn't help but laugh and muffled it by keeping his hand pressed against his lips.

His brother was still just as cute as he had always been.

Odd as it was, he was just happy.

It was in that expression that he truly felt as he had all those years ago. The thought that Konoha had always been worth protecting. The thought that Sasuke had been worth sacrificing everything he'd once held so dear. If just to see his brother grow up.

"Children can change so much," he had murmured to himself.

Then he'd turned back to Yugito and the both of them had gone on.

Now, looking at him after the lunch, Itachi felt no different.

He could remember it well—the ideas that had led him to do what he had done.

Even then, Itachi could not bring himself to regret it.

He had always wondered, in his time spent away from Konoha. About a lot of things, actually, but mostly about Sasuke. If faced with the came choices as he had been, except knowing what the future would bring, would he do it again? He'd been unsure for a time, wondering if he'd imagined all the emotions that had acted as a catalyst to his decision.

But, in seeing his brother, he knew.

_ I'd do it again. _

Again, he was reminded of being small, of being young.

" _ You have to protect him. Your little brother. More than you'd protect anyone else." _

Itachi was, as always, a dedicated man to his missions.

"So, you're him, huh?" Sasuke asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

Hinata looked confused by remained quiet.

Itachi looked down on his brother and smiled.

He was sharper than he'd expected, that was for sure.

But proud. Unbelievably proud.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not."

Sasuke's face screwed up—reminding Itachi that he was still a kid—but he didn't look as if he would argue.

"It's you, for sure," he muttered out lowly, not looking up. His eyes were glued straight ahead. "Enough of an asshole to be him, at least."

Itachi's lips quirked.

_ How uncute of him _ .

* * *

"Well done, everyone, for making it here," Yugito said to the crowd of Kumo genin that huddled together. Most of them were grinning as they looked at their surroundings, eating it up with a voracious hunger she'd only seen in the likes of Kumo-nin. The others looked mostly scared out of their minds and already, Yugito could picture clear as day how her own chuunin exams had gone.

Four words to explain it; she could have died.

She had been a thirteen year old jinchuuriki and  _ still _ nearly died in the second exam, of which they all would be facing next. In the Forest of Death, which didn't exactly get its name for no damn reason. She had never been there herself, of course, but she could imagine it very well from stories she'd heard.

Yugito looked at all of them and couldn't help but worry. Ay had explicitly told her that it was her duty to make sure none of them died, that if one of them did—well, it would cost her the kage position she so wanted and would also be another heavy guilt she'd have to carry with her. Which she didn't need. At all.

"Please don't disappoint me," she told them, smiling.

"Yes, ma'am!" the crowd of genin shouted out, half of them nervous and the other excited but all of them distinctly aware of their surroundings. Yugito felt pride and love well up within her, hoping for the best and almost positive nothing could go wrong.

After all, she wasn't alone.

* * *

Yugito was searching too long and quite impatiently at that.

_ Can you sense him? _ She wondered and felt Matatabi's chakra shift inside her.

**Not very well** , was the response.

"Tch," Yugito gritted her teeth, and took off in the direction she knew she'd be able to Naruto in.

_ If he makes a move on them, I suppose we'll just have to interject with force and run the risk of being seen by others. _

**You have to be careful. We can't run the risk of Kumo being kicked out on the account that you look suspicious.**

_ Yes, yes _ , Yugito thought with a rush of speed as she worked on closing the gap between herself and Team 7.

She was in part weirded out by the large house-size tree branches and thankful for the easy stepping path that let her push forward so easily. But...it didn't change the sense of dread that filled her each time she went deeper into the forest. She had a feeling that it wasn't just the trees that were bigger than normal and Yugito abhorred any chance to see supersized bugs and other predators. She could handle them without a problem, of course, but— _ ugh _ —they sure would haunt her nightmares.

Alerted by her senses, Yugito dropped down to a lower branch and watched on as Naruto bickered with Sasuke. It was weirder yet to see Hinata with them, hesitant in her expression. She looked like she wanted to put a stop to their fight but still didn't have the courage to.

Yugito grimaced, pulling up short on what to think when her vivid memories were trying to paint an entirely different picture.

_ I hope Hinata being on their team doesn't mean we're doomed _ , Yugito thought and though she considered the girl cute, she couldn't help but feel conflicted.

**It's only natural to be wary, kitten. Keep a careful watch on her.**

_ I just feel...bad for Sakura. She was so badass when she grew older! It'd be my fault if she could never rise to that potential.  _ Yugito lamented in her guilt for a while longer with those thoughts, praying she hadn't just doomed both girls to being mewling kittens in their ineptitude. Or worse, dead in the future.

**Have faith in them,** Matatabi chided her for her doubts, tone gentle but firm.

_ Do you? _ Yugito wondered, hesitating,  _ Do you have faith in them? _

**Of course and if it comes to it, we'll just have to teach them ourselves.** Inwardly, Yugito could feel all too well the cat licking its paw as if the beast hadn't just suggested what she'd just heard.

_ Me and teaching  _ does not _ mix _ , curt as she informed Matatabi.

The cat didn't respond but a sense of amusement filled the connection between them, leaving even Yugito wanting to laugh.

Instead, she held it in and readjusted her focus to be firmly set on the three kids making their way steadily through the forest. Yugito kept up with them, a set distance between them but close enough that, with her extended hearing, she could pick up on hints of their conversations.

"We're going to have to lay a trap and wait for someone to ambush," Sasuke was saying, sounding a mixture of impatient and annoyed.

"I don't know—trap—dattebayo!" Naruto responded, grumbling too lowly for Yugito to pick up on what exactly he was saying.

"Well, I do!" Sasuke responded, his tone sharp.

"N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata hesitantly started up, "Sasuke-san is...r-right."

They were facing away from her but she could practically feel Sasuke's smirk.

"Hinata-chan!?" Naruto cried out, indignant and perhaps even confused.

Yugito half expected something less out of her, to faint after hearing Naruto's disappointment in her. It was a surprise when something entirely different happened.

"We c-can't wait for someone to come to us w-when it could make us disadvantaged. With my e-eyes, I can look for people a-and a scroll!"

There was a pause in their conversation and although Yugito was impressed with the heiress, she feared it might have been too much in speaking up against her crush.

Then Naruto let out a self-deprecating laugh before scratching at the back of his head sheepishly, "When ya put it like that, Hinata-chan! Ok, turn on your eye thing and let's find a scroll and get ourselves out of this place!"

Yugito breathed a sigh of relief but ducked even further below them in the chance Hinata spotted her. Sure would be embarrassing if a genin would be the one to find her—an almost kage.

It never happened but instead, the confidence in them and coupled with the relief that they were working better together than she expected, led her thoughts in a different direction.

_ Hey, it's been awhile since you've invited me into the link. _

**You're too busy for that right now, kitten.**

_ Yeah, I know but...it just kind of struck me that I could talk to Naruto in it. Communicate better if it had to come to it. _

Then another thought came to her.

_ Do you think you could connect me to Gaara later? _ she asked Matatabi.

**No, not unless you want your soul to be eaten.**

Uneasy, Yugito hesitantly ventured to ask,  _ Why? _

**In the state of mind he's in, Gaara and Shukaku will eat anything that comes into their domain. Even worse is that the link between my brother is so fractured at this point, I'm not sure even I could get into contact with him.**

Yugito blinked and felt the puzzle pieces connecting,  _ Shukaku-san was the one you were trying to talk to all this time? _

**Well, I can't leave you to doing all the work, Kitten. I've been...inspired by you and I hope to one day heal the rift between my siblings just as you hope to unite the shinobi nations.**

She didn't know why she wasn't surprised upon hearing the news but she didn't care to figure it out. Yugito was pleased as it was to have helped the beast within her and even happier at the sentiment of true unity and peace coming to their land one day.

Seemed like a dream, but one she was hoping to make come true.

**We will,** Matatabi told her **, we will.**

* * *

Dread filled him but he didn't let it take hold.

Itachi stiffened but forced himself to relax.

"You thought I wouldn't find you?" Orochimaru asked, voice melodic and dripping with contempt all at the same time. "Disguised as you are, as if I  _ wouldn't know _ ."

"Why have you come to me?" Itachi asked, dropping all other pretenses and turning to face the man in a woman's skin. "Weren't you going to be after my brother?"

"What business would I have with him when I can have the older, stronger brother instead? A fully trained shinobi, strong enough to kill an entire clan...well, almost an entire clan." Orochimaru laughed, "Someone stopped you, didn't they? A very pretty girl, and closer to you than anyone has ever been before...such a fascinating story, I would say, as I've been following it quite closely."

Orochimaru grinned and chuckled, soft and somehow far reaching in its effects.

_ It's a game _ , Itachi reminded himself. Outwardly, he remained calm. Face impassive, expression unfeeling. Just as he had always trained himself to look when he was most afraid.

"So you've been watching us. For how long?"

"For quite a while," Orochimaru said with a grin, "and I know  _ many _ things."

Itachi hummed his acknowledgement but said nothing more. Staring and gauging his opponent, waiting. There was little he could think of to say without being outright blatant about it. Or, perhaps that was best?

"What things?"

"Ah, where to even begin? Would it mean anything to you if I told you I knew all about your little inventor friend?" Orochimaru's grin stretched wide. Teeth bared clear to see, purple gums and a tongue that snaked out through the gaps. Even in a different body that could have been, he was nothing beautiful to look at.

Inwardly, Itachi could feel his impatience grow.

If he knew about Tobio, he knew about the trip. Then...did he know about other things as well? Yugito's knowledge of the future, or what their plans were? Was that why he intercepted him instead of his brother? Itachi wasn't so sure and he  _ loathed _ the uncertainty.

"Are you leaving me with no choice then?" Itachi asked, looking at him through hooded eyes.

"Ah, but you do have a choice! Submit to me, and your brother will be left untouched but...try and fight it and I can promise no such things." A satin voice with a deal that marked him a devil spilling through his mouth words as if they were rancid wine. Itachi decided that in them, he did have a third option.

Fight it and  _ kill _ him.

Itachi needed to end this now—he needed to do it for everyone.

Kill him now, and save the Hokage. Kill him now, and save a lot of people. Kill him now, and keep his brother  _ safe. _

The only choice he had to make was  _ how _ to do it.

"Hm?" Orochimaru lifted a brow. "It looks as if you've come to an unfavorable decision. Will you die here or shall I take you nevertheless of your concerns?"

_ You won't be enjoying this for long _ , Itachi thought but didn't say.

"I won't let either of those things happen," he stated firmly, in a tone of voice he'd once used to order his ANBU operatives.

"My, you've changed!" Orochimaru realized with a pleased grin as he walked closer. "What happened to your sense of sacrifice? Has your time spent with her, really made you so selfish? You can't even let yourself die for your brother?"

Itachi gritted his teeth but said nothing. He didn't need to. His reasons were clear enough to himself.

_ I'm living for more than myself now. _

Determined, he vanished from where he stood in the form of countless crows scattering.

He saw Orochimaru's back but before he could strike, Orochimaru dissolved into snakes. Feeling his presence close by, Itachi spun and deflected the Sannin's strike with a kunai. Sparks flew and with his mouth firmly closed shut, Itachi pressed forward and with his freehand, he snapped a kunai up from his pouch and aimed for the jugular.

Orochimaru looked up—Itachi shift gears, eyes on his.

It didn't work, a clone dispersing in his hands like ash sifting through his fingers. Of course, it could never be so simple.

With laughter sweeping in the air, Orochimaru dispersed into snakes and left Itachi standing, drawing his entire concentration to be sure where of he was coming from next.

"It’s far too early in the day for this, don’t you think?" Orochimaru asked and Itachi sent a ball of fire skyrocketing towards the source of his voice.

Trees caught fire but the man was nowhere in sight.

"Frustrated so soon?" that sugar sweet voice crawled towards him.

" _ Katon—Hōsenka Tsumabeni _ !" Itachi shouted as he formed the final seal.

He moved fast, his fingers numb as they griped the shuriken in his palm before he blew furiously the flames that coated them. He sent them flying through the air, knocking and embedding into every dark shape he noticed moving.

"Are you so intent on burning  _ everything _ to the ground?" Orochimaru tauntingly asked and his chuckle reverberated through Itachi. Behind him, the voice came right behind him.

" _ Magen—Shinkarasu _ ," Itachi calmly said, turning just in time to watch another clone disperse.

Orochimaru continued to laugh.

“Ah, this taste of your power _ — _ I know when I consume you, it’ll be so  _ delicious _ ,” the snake’s voice was carried along a breeze. Itachi knew he would have to get serious soon if he wanted to shut him up any time soon.

“Stay still while I kill you,” Itachi told him, impatient to move on.

“Not so soon,” Orochimaru begged off, laughing at the tail end before humming in bemusement. “I only wanted to say hello for today.”

“You’re  _ not _ getting away,” Itachi ground out, agitated but unwilling to show it on his face. Instead, he kept his expression impassive.

He wouldn’t lose control. He wouldn’t lose  _ him _ .

**Five Lives Forever Changed**

**He's gone** , Matatabi interjected as Yugito watched a freshly patched up and successful Team 7 make their way to the tower.

_ Orochimaru? _ Yugito wondered, confused.  _ But he never...what do you think happened? _

"Are you sure you can see the tower, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, sounding amazed and happy all at once.

**I felt him clashing with the crow not too long ago and while I can still feel your crow, I cannot sense the snake.**

Yugito tensed, worried as she looked down to the trio below her.

"Y-yes," Hinata said softly, words carried by the wind, "we'll be there tomorrow if we can keep our pace the same. And not...g-get into trouble with o-other teams."

"Wow, Hinata-chan! You really are our most valuable member! Just like Kakashi-sensei was saying."

_ I'll...go to Itachi. _ Yugito decided, torn as she looked away from her boyfriend's students.

It was stupid and distracting from the seriousness of the situation but, she was happy. She couldn't stop the rush of pleasure that shot up her sternum at the thought of,  _ boyfriend _ . It was like she was some sort of teenage girl, pining for the next time she could see him. It was kind of scary at the same time, how such a word could hold her emotionally captive.

Something so simple and yet, such a sweet and powerful thing. Yugito had never had a connection like that to anyone before.

_ Yell at me if I ever think like this again _ , Yugito begged Matatabi, embarrassed by herself even if only the cat could listen to her.

While Matatabi was like a second soul to her, even Yugito felt ashamed of her idiot thoughts at times.

**Hurry up and go** , the cat chided her and with a grateful chuckle, Yugito abided.

* * *

"What does it mean?" she asked though she knew no one would be able to give a solid answer. How were  _ they _ supposed to know what it meant? Orochimaru hadn’t done anything. He’d done  _ nothing _ .  _ What does it mean? _

Kakashi rested his palm at her back and she leaned into the touch, finding it a curious thing. It was a foreign feeling—the security. Somehow, she found herself comforted by such seemed to be such a small act.

"We have to tell the Hokage,” Itachi spoke up from his corner in the room they’d taken over. 

Gai nodded in agreeance, stepping off the wall before muttering, “it’s too dangerous not to. We don’t know what he’s planning and any time spent deliberating on this will only just be more advantageous to him.”

“It is best,” Yugito agreed with a sigh. Though she still didn’t like it. She worried it would make things too complicated to keep track of, and her tendency to want control in all matters wasn’t helping her much.

Yugito knew that objectively speaking, telling the Hiruzen the necessary information to keep Konoha safe wouldn’t be any worse than the clusterfuck of disaster that was heading their way already anyway. In fact, it would be the most helpful and useful thing to do.

The  _ only _ thing to do.

_ Shit _ . She hated being caught in a cat and mouse game.

“While we’re at it, we should schedule that meeting like my father asked,” Itachi added, not meeting her gaze when she looked up in surprise.

She squinted at him, concerned.

"I'll be the one to tell the Hokage," Kakashi murmured close to her ear, taking her attention from Itachi momentarily. "I’ll ask about the note Itachi’s father left too. Gai, come with me.”

“Understood, my dearest rival!” the green-clad ninja said with a nod, and though he looked as if he was trying to sound glum, he somehow made even that energetic.

Yugito watched them go with half a mind. She didn’t know what to think or say. In part, she felt like a failure, though she knew it was too obscure of a feeling to attempt to explain. It wasn’t as if she could help that Orochimaru had chosen then to act out of accordance with her memories.

_ What else am I going to be wrong about? _

She’d always known it was a possibility but having to face it so soon felt more than a little bit unfair. Maybe it was punishment for finally being happy for once.

Yugito collapsed on the sofa in the room and slapped her hand on the cushion next to her, waiting for Itachi expectantly. His warmth was comforting as he landed beside her and she immediately went to rest her head on his shoulder before his hand came out unexpectedly to stop her.

“I don’t want to talk about my dad,” he said, surprising her as she lifted a brow at him.

Was she really that much of a mother hen?

Yugito looked to the ceiling and fought off the temptation to coddle him. So much had changed since the first time she’d met him--it was ridiculous to think about. 

“Good, cause I want to take a nap instead,” she told him, sighing, “and dream about the good old days when you followed behind me like a lost kitten. You were much cuter back then.”

“You mean, when you dragged me around everywhere,” he corrected her.

She scoffed, looking over at him. If he wasn’t so damn cute, she would have hung him from the trees for that comment.

“I remember so well when you cried in my arms,” Yugito reminded him. “I realized for the first time what it must be like to have a little sister.”

“I’m pretty enough for it,” Itachi agreed with a nod, making her reach for his cheeks.

She pinched them and glared.

Seconds later, they dissolved into laughter.

* * *

"While we’re looking for him, I’d preferred if you stayed in the tower," the Sandaime informed her, looking tired. "While it might not be a matter of trust, I do have worry for your safety. I hope you understand."

"I do," she murmured, not fully believing what he was trying to tell her.

Why would they care about her safety when she was a jinchuuriki?

"And about your  _ circumstances _ , Kakashi has explained them to me," he added and she was mildly surprised. She wondered what that was in reference to, thinking of a dozen issues and not finding one that stuck out in particular.

"Oh?" she prompted, noticing her boyfriend stiffen where he stood.

"But perhaps we should save all of that for another time. For now, we both have other matters to focus on," Hiruzen gave her meaningful look but for the most part, she didn't think much about it.

She hadn't a clue what he meant by it, after all. If it was a euphemism, he was failing spectacularly.

"The preliminary exams will be commencing in a few more days time. You'll be free to attend if you so desire," he informed her diplomatically and turned to leave the room. "For now, you should get some rest."

Rest. Rest for what? It wasn’t as if she had anything else to do, with the Kumo students being taken care of by their jounin teachers. In the end, she had nothing to  _ do  _ except be an utter waste of space.

He seemed uninterested in her dilemma in how to be less like a piece of shit than she was.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," she told the shutting door as he made his way through it, vanishing.

With a sigh, Yugito sunk into the chair beside the table that Itachi was sitting at, writing. Seemed he at least was having fun with their inconclusive break from concern.

"You need to rest," Kakashi told her and pointed towards another door she’d been wondering where it led to. "It’s the bedroom."

She yawned just thinking about it, reminded of the fact that it was close to twelve in the morning.

“I will, eventually," she told him, and met his gaze squarely. "So, what did you tell him about me?"

Kakashi looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.

"I trust you," she informed him dully, "whatever you told him, I don't mind. I just need to know so I can act accordingly."

"I told him only as much as I needed to," he started, shifting awkwardly in place. "I told him that we discovered Orochimaru after going to investigate on a suspicion you had. Revealed Itachi’s identity when he kept prodding for more and after that, I told him what Itachi told us. That Orochimaru had left but was clearly planning more.”

“But what of that is my  _ circumstances _ ?” Yugito asked, curious.

She had a feeling that if he didn’t have a mask to hide it, he’d be blushing up to his ears.

“As for your  _ circumstances _ , I...I told him we were..."

"Dating?" Yugito blinked.

"Yeah."

It certainly wasn't what she had been expecting.

Placing her chin into her palm, she gave him a tired smile.

"What was his reaction? An order to break up with me?" she wondered and couldn't be sure what she would do if faced with the option. For all she knew, it could be their destiny to end and she would be wasting energy, trying for no damn reason.

"No," he told her, looking away as he continued, "he said it might prove good for relations with Kumo, if there was a marriage."

_ Marriage.  _ It echoed in her ears and she wanted to choke.

"Strange," she commented, trying not to show how weird what he said made her feel. "I would think he would hate to have anything to do with Kumo. Especially to give up a shinobi like you to a Raikage." Not something to be so easily approved of, at least.

She hated just thinking about it but it was true.

"I was...surprised too," he told her and she could nearly see a smile beneath his mask. "It seems that he's known of our relationship for a while though. Gai was an idiot and reported our interactions in his mission report."

Yugito squinted at him, concerned, "Did he talk about the other stuff too?"

"No, doesn't seem like it."

"So...he's known about us before we even did," she murmured, laughing to herself. "So far as to notice you that night I brought you with me to that gathering."

"He's always been acute on things like that. Minato-sensei has told me that he was the reason why he even managed to propose to Kushina-san."

Kakashi's gaze turned soft, speaking about them.

Yugito rose up out of her chair and tried for a smile as she held out her hand.

"We should get some sleep."

* * *

“It’ll be just sleeping,” she told him, a bit nervous as she noticed how big the bed was that Hiruzen had assigned them to.

“I did say you needed to rest,” he told her, somehow making her feel even more awkward.

“But why? I haven’t been  _ doing _ anything,” she bemoaned.

“You’ve been doing  _ that _ ,” he pointed out with a lifted brow, “worrying about things that you can’t help.”

“It’s not just things I can’t help,” she muttered, though there was plenty of that too. “It’s the memories. I just didn’t expect for them to be so useless. After all this time, I thought they were something of a curse that had been turned into an advantage for us.”

“They’re still an advantage,” he told her even as she squinted at him, disbelieving. “It’s because of you that we knew about Orochimaru’s plan to attack, and even if it didn’t go down exactly as we expected, there’s still plenty more that you know that’ll help us take him down.”

“I guess,” she huffed out, hand on her hip as she nibbled on her lower lip. She wanted to rip her hair out.

_ This is so damn frustrating! _ She internally screamed.

**Hush, you.**

_ Sorry _ .

“Listen,” he called to her, closing the distance between them as he reached for her palms. He met her gaze, matter of fact in his attitude, “it’s going to be fine. Thing’s will work out.”

“You don’t even fully believe that,” she muttered, hating how whiny she was being.

Ugh, she was  _ awful. _

Yugito should have just let herself be comforted instead of arguing with him.

Kakashi laughed, surprising her.

“No, but I believe in you and that means a whole lot more to me.”

She felt her face go red before she could fully process what he’d said, blinking at him. If he wasn’t holding her hands, she would have tried to hide her reaction. Instead, she blurted, amazed, “that was so damn cheesy!”

Kakashi blinked at her. “Woman, I’m trying to inform you of my unending devotion and you can’t even take me seriously.”

Yugito burst into hysterical giggles, falling into him when it became a struggle to keep upright.

“I’m never saying anything this embarrassing again if this is the reaction I can expect,” he muttered into her hair, hand shifting onto her waist.

“Sorry, sorry,” she apologized, still trying to beg off the following rounds of laughter she couldn’t wholly keep herself from.

Kakashi chuckled alongside her after a while and for a moment, she let herself experience the warmth as it was.

They were alone, concerns just an echo away.

Tired as she was, it was the sense of comfort that relaxed her further and made it hard for her to keep her eyes open.

_ This is mine _ , she thought and it was a realization that sent waves through her. She couldn't get swept away from them, however—she had something to hold on to now.

"I once thought I'd be alone forever," she whispered and it was an odd thing to recall where she had been only years ago. Desperate for an escape, aching for someone to listen and understand. Doubting the reliability of the world and others, second guessing not just those around her but herself. Constantly thinking of the harshities and extremities that she knew she would have to face and overcome.

_ It's so different now _ , she thought and for a second she thought she'd make a fool of herself and begin to cry.

Something was wrong with her, to be so happy and yet want to sob for it.

Kakashi ran his hand from her palm all the way up to her shoulder and gently, he pulled her in. Yugito sank into his warmth with a sigh that escaped without her permission. But he didn't seem to mind and neither did she.

"I've thought the same," he admitted and in those words she found hope and desires she’d kept herself from for a long time.

She could envision fantasies with those words—of the two of them in the future. Not alone. Maybe with the tinkling laughter of children around but not alone. With each other.

Yugito ached for it badly but she couldn't say it out loud. Not for him to hear, when she didn't know if he wanted the same things and not for him to hear, for expectations to build and destroy themselves. Still, she rested her head against his chest and listened to his heartbeat.

It was quicker than she expected it to be.

"You stand so close and it makes me want to pounce," he said warningly and soon, her own heartbeat escalated and she pulled away. Nerves hit her then and her cheeks heated at the thought of what he was implying.

"We’re supposed to be resting,” she reminded him, and snorted, “plus, Itachi is in the room next over.”

Kakashi blew out a breath and surprisingly, he was giving her a weathered eye-smile, "It’s a big bed you got here. It’d be a shame if one side was left cold."

She eyed him through her lashes and chuckled at his moronic way of making a suggestion.

"It's late, we should get changed for bed," she suggested, unable to resist the call of his waggling brow.

She watched him take off his mask, revealing his grin and his way too adorable mole. His smile broadened in the wake of her reaction.

If possible, it made her even redder. If only he wasn't so damn attractive!

The both of them undressed, refusing to acknowledge each other and while she focused on getting her pajamas on, Kakashi clambered into bed with nothing more than his underwear. She wondered faintly if she would even make it through the night alive.

"Come to bed, Yugito," he ordered and held open his arms.

Way more shy than she needed to be, reluctantly she crawled onto the bed and somehow found herself slipping under the covers. Seconds later, Kakashi pulled her in even closer by the waist and though it was sudden, she decided she didn't dislike the way their bodies seemed molded to be beside each other.

Kakashi blinked languorously upon noticing her expression.

"What?"

The redness in her cheeks deepened and for a moment, it was all she could do to keep air in her lungs. She pursed her lips and shook her head, embarrassed.

"What is it?" he asked again and brushed her chin with his knuckles, as if he had been unable to resist.

"The way you say my name," she forced out, not even thinking, just talking and saying out loud her thoughts as if he couldn't hear them. "I never thought my name was pretty but the way you say it sounds...nice."

Kakashi hummed out his understanding before quietly, under his breath, "Yugito..."

She turned her head towards him and shifted her legs so that they slid against his. She wiggled her toes and gave him a look.

"At this point, I think you're  _ trying _ to torture me," he accused, matching her grin.

"Ufu," she laughed and eyed him sharply, "got a foot fetish then?"

"I think it's a  _ you _ fetish, idiot."

Yugito couldn't help the stupidly cheerful  _ giggle _ that left her. It made her feel young again, like a child experiencing something new for the first time. She wanted to know more about him. Wanted to spend more than just a night with him. It felt better this way, stark in the way it stood out from all the time she had spent so alone. All the while, she couldn't stop herself from getting closer.

Turning on her side, she tilted her head so that it rested beneath his chin. Her hands went to grasp his shoulders and she pressed her stomach against his, entwining their legs together. She'd never been so close to anyone before, not in her entire life.

She  _ loved it _ .

"Who gave you your name?" she wondered, sinking into their shared warmth, "Your father?"

"As far as I know. What about you?"

"A nurse. She raised me until I was three and then had to return to her family," Yugito answered honestly, and he was the first person she was telling this to, "I don't have any memories of her but I suppose she was the closest thing I ever had to a mother."

"I never knew my mother either," Kakashi admitted quietly, then very softly, "she died because I was born."

She paused her breathing, and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.

_ I used to think the same way _ , she recalled distantly, with half a mind.

It was painful. For her to be so happy but for his words to express so much  _ pain _ .

"Nonsense," she quickly corrected him but was only speaking the mantra she had told herself so often, "none of us make the choice to be born. It's entirely unreasonable to have a sense of guilt for something you had no power in."

"Sorry," he said and for a moment she detected uncertainty in his tone, "Should I not have...?"

Yugito frowned, and while she didn't want to pull away, she did. Shifting, she unraveled her limbs from him and his limp touch allowed her to. He wasn't looking at her anymore and he was perhaps not looking at anything anymore, but distant memories separated from her.

Annoyed, she pulled her leg over his stomach and sat on him.

Leaning over him, and letting her hair slip over her shoulder, she willed him to meet her eyes.

"Thank you for telling me," she whispered, and pressed a kiss to his forehead before resting hers against his, "but you're a dumbass if you think that way even now."

His expression softened, "Can't have you doubting my intelligence, can we?"

Yugito squinted her eyes at him and knew he was trying to deflect with humor. She wouldn't let him.

"I'm happy you told me that because if you hadn't, I wouldn't know you thought that way. But," she sucked in a breath and willed herself not to act like a baby and cry in front of him, "even if I'm happy, I still can't ignore it as if it's something normal and just existing as a part of you. Because it's not your fault your mother died giving birth to you. Just like it's not mine either. Or would you want me to think that too?"

"No," he admitted quietly before leaning in to kiss her. His hands gripped her waist and even though she should have stopped him, she didn't. She let him flip their position, let him settle her beneath him and let his hands touch her. His fingers roamed and caressed her, and running up her sides and eliciting a soft moan each time he strayed a little further down.

"Kakashi," she mumbled and he paused long enough to meet her gaze.

"I want to touch you everywhere," he told her and smiled in a way she had never seen before. It sent a thrum of heat through her and felt like lightning in the way it jolted a reaction out of her. It was unbearable, the heat felt close to consuming her and it probably would have, had it not been for Kakashi.

Abruptly, he rolled off of her and landed to her right.

Disorientated and confused, she turned on her side to look at his face for answers. His cheeks were flushed but it was the only indication that anything had happened at all. She didn't know whether to be thankful or not and settled for the former, if only to curb her disappointment.

"Why don't you like your name?" he suddenly asked, shifting to look at her closer.

"Well because...because it's...a strange name," Yugito answered, and then felt her cheeks flush. "No one really knew what to expect from me when I introduced myself. For a long time, I was called by another name actually. I made them stop after a while but, it was probably a nicer name."

"What was it?" he asked, his eye shining and his lips quirking up in an expectant smile.

"Yuiko."

"Thoughtful child?" he wondered and at her nod, his grin broadened, "It's fitting."

"It brought too many bad memories with it," then Yugito shook her head. "No. Not bad. Too many  _ good _ memories."

"Why is that?" he asked in a whispered, hand coming up to touch the edge of her chin.

"Well, the name was given to me when I met my...my father. He fostered me for a while and during the time I was supposed to introduce myself, I spoke too quietly and he thought my name was different. After that it sort of stuck. But now, when I'm called that name..." She trailed off, unsure how to explain it.

Kakashi seemed satisfied, just listening to her speak.

Yugito smiled at him and ducked her face into the crook of his neck. For some reason it made her a stupid amount of happy to be telling him something so mundane.

"Later on, I'll tell you more about that man. He was very special to me," she added quietly, and settled in closer to him.

"I'd like that," he whispered and it was in his arms accompanied by the sounds of his soft breathing, that she fell asleep.

* * *

 

**Five Lives Forever Changed - End**

 

 


	26. Six Waves

 

**Six Waves**

* * *

" _You're a kid, it's okay to depend on me."_

_It was spoken with a rough timbre and one that, at the time, made her feel supported by some sort of otherworldly power. A chuckle followed soon after, and in a tone that spoke of melancholy and repressed recollections, he added, "children shouldn't look so old as you do."_

Yugito woke up with the memory on the tip of her tongue and a warm hand resting against her cheek.

It was disorienting for a moment, waking up with someone beside her.

She couldn't recall very many memories of it ever happening before. Perhaps, back when she was still just a child. For some reason, the thought made her incredibly nostalgic.

In spaces of time, her memory of the night before came back and though she felt herself sinking into the mattress in embarrassment over how emotional she'd gotten, she didn't pull away from Kakashi. She liked him touching her.

"Good morning," he croaked out, his breath ruffling the hair at her ears and making her curl her toes in response. She grinned at him as soon as she got the courage up to peek at him through her loose hair. Almost immediately, she was rewarded with the sight of his canines. She licked her own.

Kakashi growled and before she could register it happening in her sleep-addled state, he shifted their positions and came to hover over her. His hands were rough on the skin of her stomach and his breath was hot as it misted over her throat. Without thinking, Yugito brought her legs and wrapped them around the back of him. Drawing him in closer, she lifted her hands to his shoulders and grinned broadly.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked with an unasked grin forming on her face.

Inwardly, it felt bizarre and somehow incredible, his warmth so close to her own. Strange in the way that she so rarely felt such sensations, and incredible in that she could feel them at all. Her eyes misted but she didn't let herself tear up. It would have been too embarrassing to let him see, and even more so to explain why she felt compelled to cry.

It was not often at all that she felt such gentle hands hold her.

He rested his forehead against hers and quietly asked, "Do we have to get up today?"

She wondered if there was an underlying question in his words but didn't have the courage to ask. Instead, Yugito looked off towards the clock and noted the time. It was already half past noon, the latest she had slept in for a long time.

"I'm hungry," she told him and flipped their positions with her thighs still wrapped around his. He watched her with a heavy lidded gaze with a brow lifted and his lips drawn into a smirk. It was magnetic to watch him, transfixing in that she couldn't look away.

She leaned in and kissed him, feeling her mouth capture his like two puzzle pieces meeting. She meant it to be quick and chaste, but the idea of it changed the moment he wrapped his arm around her waist. She sucked in a breath and in that moment, the kiss was deepened.

Yugito had kissed him numerous times before, and though some of them had been heated, she had never quite experienced anything like she was now. It was difficult to describe, difficult to let herself feel, but the gentle warmth she'd felt so enveloped in earlier was nothing more than a memory of an afterthought.

Somehow the image of a knife heating up under a flame crossed her mind and in the same moment, Kakashi broke the kiss—only to lead a trail of fire down her throat. Yugito felt her breath catch when he began to suck and her fingers curled in the folds of his shirt in response. He sat up then, bringing her to lean into him as she sat in his lap, legs wound around his torso.

She pressed into him, squeezing her thighs and lost in intelligent thought.

He pulled back, beckoning a whimper from her. Yugito met his gaze and watched those once so lazy eyes gaze back at her with heated intent. He smiled at her, swollen lips twisting in a way that made her absent of breath.

"I hope we're hungry for the same thing," he growled.

Yugito had no doubts. She stared back at him for a moment but it passed quickly. Without thinking, she leaned back onto the bed with his arms wrapped so tightly around her. He was positioned so perfectly, watching her from above.

She knew what she wanted. Knew what he wanted.

Biting her lip, she tilted her head and whispered with a coated tongue, " _please_."

A knock came at the door, completely interrupting everything and if her hands weren't already preoccupied, she would have done something to shut up whoever was behind the door.

But it could only be one person standing there and she could never send him away.

Kakashi sighed and rolled off her to open the door while she adjusted the way her clothing sat on her. Looking down at herself was the moment she finally felt the embarrassment settle in at what they had been doing. Without her having even realized, Kakashi had hiked up her shirt over her chest and had been working on sliding off her shorts. Yugito pulled the hem of her shirt over her stomach and tugged up her shorts.

She swallowed any sounds of complaint as she stood up to follow closely behind her boyfriend.

Itachi gave them an amused look as soon as the door was opened and she had to roll her eyes.

"Did you need something?" she muttered, hanging onto Kakashi's arm while she gave Itachi her best annoyed look. She didn't have to be nice about him interrupting what had been years in the making.

"We have a meeting with my father and the Hokage. Or did you forget?" Itachi raised a brow at her and she knew that he would be laughing about this later on.

Yugito groaned, but didn't complain as she left them at the door to get dressed.

Whatever Fugaku had to say, better be worth it.

* * *

Sumiye sighed, gazing around herself and hoping the nerves would go away soon.

"What's with the long face?" Kawa asked, settling himself next to her and smiling in that soft way of his.

"It's nothing," she mumbled, forcing herself to give a response when in actuality, there was many reasons for why she looked the way she did. It would only rightly express how she felt in that moment. Haggard, beaten down, exhausted, worried, concerned,  _confused_.

Sumiye didn't know what to do.

They'd been there for a few days, resting, but it didn't changed at all the fact that Sumiye hadn't been exactly sleeping well at night.

She felt sick to her stomach.

"It can't be nothing," Manzo muttered, concern clear in his gaze though it was nearly masked by the lack of care in his voice. Couldn't exactly expose himself and free himself of the suspicion of being an absolute prick, now, could he?

"Just nervous," she told them, and it was part of the truth. She'd at least give them that. Anything else was either too dangerous or too unbelievable to say out loud.  _Ugh_. Even she couldn't believe half of what was happening to her.

Was she hiding it well?

The mark on her neck pulsed with foreign chakra and while she was terrified of it, Sumiye forced herself to remain calm. Like her mother told her to do. Like her father  _might've_  told her to do, if he was alive to do it.

She couldn't trust anyone with the information that she knew. Couldn't allow anyone to see it, so she kept her hand rested against her neck. No one would believe her—or worse, they would and she'd be forced to leave the prelims.

But Sumiye couldn't let that happen.

"Do you need something to drink?" Kawa asked, already getting up in advance to get it.

She swallowed, but didn't think she could trust whatever might be in the water he got for her.

_It's_ _ **Kawa**_ _,_ her mind reminded her but her heart wasn't interested.

"I'll get it myself," she murmured, fully intending to do just that.

"Hey, brats," a new voice interjected and she looked up to meet the eyes of a woman she could vaguely recognize but couldn't place. The woman narrowed her eyes at her and it was the barest of seconds that Sumiye realized her hand had slipped. At the spike of nerves in her gut, she prayed her long hair had been enough to disguise it.

At the tightening of the woman's expression, Sumiye felt something in her stomach tighten to an extent that was painful. She didn't know what to do and in that moment, she felt fear. Of the unknown, of the uncertain.

_Keep calm_ , Sumiye reminded herself and took in a deep breath to cool her temper.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Prelims will be starting soon, get prepared," she told them and walked on.

Sumiye didn't allow herself to breath until the woman was out of sight and by the time she was, she had to run to the bathroom. She didn't look back at her teammates, and with tears pressing at the corners of her eyes, she didn't let anyone see her face.

She kept telling herself that she only had to be patient. Soon, she would be able to contact her mother and the rest of her clan. When she did, they would be able to figure out a way to reverse whatever had been done to her and she'd continue on as she had in the past.

This was her test; her trial to prove herself. An added difficulty level that she hadn't wanted but had no choice but to take part in—and she refused to fail.

Sumiye was a smart girl, after all.

* * *

Itachi wasn't sure what to think of anything anymore.

It was as if the laws of the universe had been rewritten and nothing was as it used to be. How else could it be that his father, of all people, would be saying such things?

Then again, it wasn't the first time the universe rewrote itself in his perspective.

When he had been a child, Itachi never thought there would come a day where he couldn't implicitly trust his father. Then the tides had changed with the death of the Yondaime and the destruction of homes and countless buildings by the wrath of the Kyuubi. The base of operations for the police changed and the voices of his cousins, uncles, aunts, and parents soon changed as well.

Itachi had been lost in understanding of the universe in that time and of his place in it.

Then the second rewriting, when Yugito first entered his world and tipped it completely sideways. It was when he had come to realize he could never be as he had once been. Could never aspire to be the things he once had or place hope or faith in identities beyond his own. Could never let himself be a thoughtless tool like he once had.

Best put, while the world had changed in that time, he had changed along with it.

Now, a third time, he felt his perspectives twisting and transforming. An attempt towards allowing in new information and adjusting to it like he would have with anything mission status changes.

In this respect, missions were far easier to handle.

Itachi didn't know if he could handle this new universe.

"You've changed your mind about the coup?" Itachi asked in a low tone, unsure of what sort of face he was making. It was most likely blank of anything. In the end, Itachi still held onto his self preservation and such skills had always come easily to him.

Must be from the way he had been raised.

"I never wanted it from the start," Fugaku told him, mouth set into a grim line. Itachi had been accustomed to the expression when he was a young child but it had been years since he had last seen it.

It was bizarre to be standing across from him.

Itachi looked to Yugito to be sure it was real. If she was here, then anything could be possible.

She wasn't looking at him, her eyes trained on Fugaku, but the sight of her let Itachi calm himself. If she was there with him, he would be fine. He'd believed that for too long to let any universal rewrite change that.

"Why didn't you do anything to stop it?" Itachi asked.

Years of never understanding his father weighed on him, and the moments of looking into those dark eyes of his left him feeling the weight of it all the more. Who was he? Who was this man that had raised him into this world and had never explained anything to him?

"You were there to witness the hysteria when it first began," Fugaku told him, tone gruff, "there was no one who didn't want there to be a change in the way the clan was treated. It wouldn't have even mattered if you had been clan head. There was nothing that could have stopped it."

"But why did that have to be the method? Why put at risk the lives of Konoha and the clan?" Itachi asked, and it was liberating to do it. Things he had wondered but never voiced out loud. He felt no hesitation in saying them—had lost that bad habit years ago.

"Because, son," Fugaku sighed, and haggard him a long hard look, "power is all anyone affected with the curse of hatred thinks about and a coup is the taking of it. Anything smaller would not have been enough to satisfy any of them and it still isn't."

"It still isn't?" Itachi echoed, raising a brow in question as if only mildly interested.

"That's what you have been called here for," the Sandaime finally spoke up, looking towards Yugito. "We need assistance in stopping the coup a second time, as you had done previously in your visit to Konoha."

She looked nonplussed at his words.

"You mean, when I abducted Itachi," she summarized and tilted her chin with curiosity in her dark eyes, "how do you know you can trust me? Or, better yet, why must you ask for help in the first place?"

"Trust is an illusionary thing, isn't it?" Hiruzen regarded her with a passive look. "You will never truly know if you have my trust. Just as I will never know if I have yours. So, perhaps it'll better to act in our own self-interests and trust the motivations behind these desires."

"Agreed," Yugito nodded with a grin, and gestured towards him to continue as she prompted, "and why are you asking for my help? What is it you think I can offer you? What do I get out of this?"

"The situation as of late has become...complicated," Hiruzen's expression darkened, "under normal circumstances, I would not call for aid. Especially not without consulting my council first."

Itachi looked to Yugito at the news and the both knew what that meant. Whatever was happening, Danzo was thankfully excluded from.

"The Uchiha clan is planning a coup with the assistance of Suna," Fugaku explained in an unglamourous fashion. It gave little room to even act surprised. He continued on without waiting for response, adding, "it's meant to happen on the day of the final exam, a month from now."

"So, what you're asking for isn't exactly  _my_ help," Yugito pointed out, "but rather what I can do to get Kumo to come in as backup, right?"

"Correct," Hiruzen said.

"Why don't you just put a stop to the clan?" Itachi asked his father, unsure if he was missing a larger piece to the puzzle. "Why don't you do anything to keep Suna away from Konoha?"

"I'm doing my best," Fugaku told him and for a second, there was the trace of a smile. But it vanished with his next words, "With the help of our esteemed leader, I've been trying to minimize the Uchiha clan's involvement in these matters. But progress with that has been slow and years of hatred is not something that can be wiped clean in just a day."

"Think of Kumo's involvement as a contingency plan, in the case anything happens at all," Hiruzen interjected and Itachi still had to wonder why more couldn't be done to stop everything. These men were smarter than they were acting and Itachi  _knew_  they could do something else than ask for outside help.

So, why?

What weren't they saying?

"What does Kumo get out of this deal?" Itachi asked, and was internally made more surprised how little he found he could trust the leader of the place he had once called his home. How little more he trusted his father and how suspicious he couldn't help but think of their actions.

"Of course, Kumo will be compensated for any effort in preventing certain tragedy."

_What if Kumo wanted to capitalize on that certain tragedy?_  Itachi wondered inwardly but didn't voice out loud. Not because he couldn't but because he didn't believe in the likelihood of it, not with Yugito soon to lead. The point was that  _they_  couldn't know what Kumo would and wouldn't do.

Itachi didn't like it—and he knew why.

"Father, is it that you feel none of this hatred?" Itachi asked, staring him straight in the eye. "You've betrayed the clan in this way. Why?"

And for a moment, Fugaku looked that he might even cry. But it was a glimpse in time and it passed with Itachi wondering if he had been imagining things.

His father, gruff and authoritative as ever, responded to the inquiry as if the answer should have been obvious.

"I learned from you, of course."

"Learned from me," Itachi repeated, not sure how to swallow the words. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Fugaku sighed and for a moment, Itachi thought he might actually get an answer. He was greatly disappointed, when his father shook his head and informed him, as if he was a child, "this isn't the time for that."

_When would be?_  He wondered and knew that it could never be time. Never had been before.

"That should be all for me," Fugaku suddenly said in closing and as he was excused by Hiruzen, he walked past Itachi and didn't pause.

Not even to look back.

* * *

The matches were set up weird but effective in the goal.

In their opinion, too many kids had made it past the second stage and for that very reason, they just  _had_  to have a preliminary. Which was incredibly awful to have to go through after having just survived the Forest of Death. Sumiye blamed this on the influx of Kumo nin that they hadn't been expecting to show and also on the fact that a whole lot more rookies had passed than anticipated.

Either way, each match was a battle royale of three names chosen at random. Last one standing was the winner who could go onto the final exam and have a chance at promotion. A simple method of weeding out the underdeveloped and unskilled from those actually worthy.

She didn't care much about any of the other kids or how well they were doing. She was much more interested in worrying about her own match instead and just getting it over with. So she could go home. So she could get help.

Sumiye had tied a scarf around her throat—something she acted as if she was pulling off as a fashion choice but was more or less a strangulation hazard if she ended up with the wrong opponent. Whatever—it wasn't such a big deal when she knew she'd beat whoever it was and her neck would go on perfectly unexposed.

She wasn't scared or intimidated. Not at all.

Not at all.

Her little cousin, Sasuke, was first to be called up for a match. Alongside him was some Kumo-nin named Kouji and an Oto-nin named Yoroi. It was kind of a boring fight, but then, Sumiye could never fathom her cousin losing. He was the next to be clan head, after all.

Kawa went next and got completely smeared because of some stupid bug-boy, simultaneously destroying another Oto-nin's chances at promotion. After that, a match between a Suna-nin named Kankuro, a Kumo-nin named Masahiro, and an Oto-nin named Misumi. In the end, the Kumo-nin was victorious with the complete destruction of clown boy's poor puppets. (That match had been kind of funny to watch.)

Next match was mildly annoying to bear witness to. It was, surprisingly, between two rookie Konoha-nin and one single Kumo-nin named Yoshikazu. Poor Yoshi was no match to two girls when they formed a temporary truce to take him down and then promptly broke into an irritating to watch fight seconds after he'd fainted. Finally, the conclusion of the fight came to a near tie, with the Yamanaka passing out just seconds before the pink haired girl.

It was at this point that Sumiye worried she would never get to her match.

Which ended up being two matches later, after a Suna-nin won her round against a Konoha-nin named Tenten and a Kumo-nin named Yasashiku. Yasa seemed to be the twin to Yoshi and he lost just as spectacularly as his brother had done. Two peas in a losing pod.

The last match before hers was offset by the disappointing loss by Manzo, the only teammate she had high hopes for. He lost to a rookie, with the only redeemable quality of his loss being that it was by a Nara. Not many could outsmart a foe like that.

It should have acted as an omen for what was to come. Both of her teammates losing and all.

But when her name was finally announced alongside two rookies, Sumiye assumed she had it in the bag. She had been calm when descending to face the brats she'd been assigned to fight. She had no idea what was actually to come in the end.

Not when she'd first seen his name and definitely not when she actually got a good look at the face beyond the orange jumpsuit.

It turns out, when least expected, the impossible becomes possible. The 'never would have thunk' becomes reality, and the ripples thereafter become the start of something incredibly awful.

Sumiye, once emboldened by her high marks and competitive nature, lost to a rookie.

Lost to two of them, on paper.

"You hit like a child," she'd told the brat, just seconds before he'd clocked her upside the head when she'd been distracted by the pain arcing down her throat and coating the nerves in her arms. If she hadn't had the seal on her affecting her reaction time, she would have completely clobbered him before he could even get to her.

Sumiye had made the mistake of waiting for the boys to fight it out before she got herself involved. She'd used genjustu techniques to hide where she was while watching them from afar and surprisingly, the dogboy hadn't won like she'd been expecting him to.

Instead, some wildchild with a flair for long winded and passionate cries of 'dattebayo' ended up walloping him. Like some sort of persistent ghost, he didn't let himself get struck down even when it was clear the odds were not in his favor.

At the time of the fight, she had even had to flinch when watching him take the blows that they'd been exchanging and remarkably, he was still more than prepared to approach her by the time she finally revealed herself.

She expected something different to happen. For him to show at least a shred of hesitancy towards hitting her.

But from the look in his eyes, she knew that there was nothing keeping him from doing his absolute very best to steal his victory.

It had been around that time that the seal had begun to act up even more.

Sumiye struggled with the pain and struggled with avoiding the blows he directed towards her. It was harder than she expected, amazed and confused as to where his sense of fatigue had vanished to. It was horrifying in a way, with each time he shot his fist towards her feeling like she was avoiding the sharp edges of kunai.

The only thing that seemed to keep her at an advantage seemed to be her size. She'd never been so grateful to be so short and slim as she was then. What had been a burden in the past had become one of her greatest skills and it was in that time that she proved it.

She could have won, actually—could have sincerely managed to beat him into the ground or even pull an easy win with a genjutsu technique. But she had chose to wait it out, dodging and deflecting and sending out subtle but powerful hits of her own when she could bear with the pain in her arms.

Sumiye had run her breath ragged in that time of waiting for the seal to calm and that had been her greatest mistake.

Too afraid to let the curse seal take her, she hadn't let herself truly fight at all.

"Go at him already!" Kawa yelled down to her, and the sound of his voice made her grit her teeth.

She didn't need a reminder to know that she was failing miserably.

Sumiye grunted and instinctively held a hand to her throat. All in a poor attempt at easing the stinging pain that sprouted from it. In attempting to deny what the seal was  _demanding_ , she was destroying herself.

Naruto launched another hit at her, this time going for her stomach. She twisted out of the way, like a dancer on ice, and glided a few more feet away from him. Her movements had been fast enough that she might as well have disappeared on him, as he clumsily looked for her.

"Get back here, dattebayo!"

"You,  _shut up!_ " she yelled, snapping as she pulled out the jutsu for a fireball. Naruto turned towards her with surprise in his gaze and as he struggled to take a step out of the way from her flames, she tossed out a kunai towards his feet. In his own way, it looked as if he were dancing like a drunken man on air.

He fell onto his back and Sumiye rushed towards him, hoping to end things before he even realized what was happening.

It didn't work out that way at all.

Just as she took a step forward, as the heat in her face reached the pitch of a fever and her panting made breathing into a challenge, she tipped over. Falling onto her knees and hands, Sumiye grunted against the pain of the seal and found saliva and tears running from her face and onto the stone floor.

She couldn't spare a second to be disgusted—she began to heave.

In front of everyone—including the boy that she had let exhaust her—Sumiye threw up what little she had been able to eat that morning. Then, as the shame and embarrassment crept up to muddle with the confusion in her head, Sumiye found herself slipping into the dark of her mind.

And that was how she'd failed her mother and clan for the second and most embarrassing time in her life.

* * *

"Nice," Yugito said with a grin as she held the winnings report on the preliminaries that she hadn't glimpsed much of. Kakashi had gone to see it, as a teacher ought to, but she'd been far more interested talking with Itachi and adjusting their plan of action.

"What's nice?" Itachi asked, looking over her shoulder at the paper in her hands.

"Three Kumo-nin got through to the final exams. Masahiro, Omoi, and Karui. Plus, it appears Sakura-chan is doing fairly well not being on Kakashi's team after all. She beat one of the twins to win her round."

"Everything else is fairly what we expected to happen," Itachi noted.

"Thank god for that," Yugito muttered, "I'm sick of weird shit happening."

"Seconded," Itachi firmly agreed.

"At least we have a month to prepare for the madness that's about to come," Yugito said, trying to remain optimistic.

**Yes, an entire month spent with your dogbreath boyfriend as well.**

Yugito brightened at the thought and paid no mind to the obligatory dog-hate spewed by the cat demon.

"I don't want the madness to come at all," Itachi muttered, and his expression looked thoughtful. As if he were trying to puzzle something out. It was similar to the way he'd looked yesterday when they'd been in the meeting with his father.

"You think there's something else going on, don't you?" Yugito guessed.

"We can't take them at face value," was all he said, surprising her.

"Note taken," she said, just before a knock sounded at the door.

Kakashi entered seconds later, not waiting for someone to come to let him in. A sharp contrast to the polite nature she was accustomed to seeing in Itachi.

Yugito jumped up nevertheless and like a magnet pulling her in, she went to his side to give him a quick kiss on the cheek over his mask.

"Is this when I'm supposed to excuse myself?" Itachi asked in a dead, uncaring tone.

"Glad you got the message before I had to send it," Kakashi told him in a droll tone but held out a hand when Itachi went to leave. "First though, an update on the situation with Orochimaru."

Yugito raised a brow at that and Itachi stilled.

"It looks as though we have been short of sight," Kakashi padded into the conversation with a look of mild regret and bitter annoyance.

"What do you mean?" Yugito prompted impatiently.

"Orochimaru didn't just aim for Itachi. He went after another Uchiha," he explained. In the room, Itachi stiffened but before he could open his mouth to ask, Kakashi rushed on with a sigh, "it wasn't Sasuke."

"Who was it then?" Itachi wondered, a grimace crossing his expression.

"Sumiye, I heard her name was," Kakashi scratched at the back of his head, looking about as finished with everything as Yugito felt in that moment.

" _Shit_ ," she muttered darkly and though she had never met the girl in question, she couldn't help but feel the guilt of having been too late to do anything sink in. She had been there for  _one_  thing, after all—to make sure Orochimaru didn't get his way.

_Fuck, fuck,_ fuck _._

What a way to fuck up so badly.

"Is she safe?" Itachi asked, bringing Yugito back into the moment and away from the siren call of self-loathing.

"Safe as she can be," Kakashi responded, moving with Yugito on his arm to the bed in her room. "The Hokage and your father have been made aware of her circumstances, but because of the way the news got out, so has everyone else that had been around for the preliminaries."

"Meaning?" Yugito asked, lifting a brow.

Kakashi winced, as if recalling something physically painful.

"Her match against Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba got...bad."

"How bad?"

"Something went off in her head when the victor of the match had been announced. I suspect that even more, as the fight had been ongoing, she had been struggling to keep the curse seal at bay but eventually she couldn't hold on anymore."

"What did she do?" Yugito hesitated to ask, feeling like she was hearing about some sort of horror story.

"We thought she'd be violent to everyone else but it was the exact opposite. She started hurting herself and very nearly ripped out her eyes. Naruto was very shaken up after seeing it happen, but then, so was everyone."

"Poor thing," Yugito murmured, almost thankful she hadn't gone to see the preliminary fights for herself.

"Will we be able to see her?" Itachi wondered, hand on his chin, "Maybe we can investigate more into the situation with Orochimaru if we do."

Kakashi looked thoughtful at the idea, "I'll ask the Hokage."

Itachi stiffened slightly before turning his gaze towards Yugito and the hesitation was clear in his eyes. Even she wasn't so sure how to feel about looking to the Hokage for permission, but in the end, if worse came to worse and they were caught sneaking around, she knew it wouldn't end very well for any of them.

Hiruzen was a warhawk, after all. He didn't get to his age being a complete moron all the time.

"You do that," Yugito clapped his shoulder and tried for a smile, "In the meantime, where is your team? Maybe we should get them together for a celebratory dinner?"

"They haven't technically won anything yet," he pointed out to her.

"Yeah, yeah, but they sure have worked hard," she reminded him, "having to compensate for having a shitty teacher and all." Yugito winked at him.

"I'm not a—" Kakashi paused, turned his gaze heavenward, and sighed, "Okay, I guess you're right about that."

She grinned at his admittance, "are we having barbeque or ramen tonight?"

"It isn't even a question. There's no way Naruto would eat anything other than Ichiraku ramen."

"Unfortunately for our wallets," Yugito chuckled, looking off towards the door and bracing herself for being surrounded by kids. Of course, she would need to invite her own Kumo kids to join and while she was at it, she could ask someone to ask Sakura to join to satisfy a few of her curiosities.

And wonder just how many other things had changed due to her actions. Each thing she did lately seemed to accrue waves upon waves of a ripple-effect chain of events. While she could still recognize certain things still having chances to happen in the near future, more and more it was blurring more and more into the realm of uncertainty.

She'd been far too shortsighted as of late. After all, she should have at least suspected Orochimaru going after other Uchiha clan members but she hadn't. More and more, she needed to actually consider such things that she had never expected to happen. Things that others might have once thought impossible.

Yugito wasn't in a dream anymore, she had come to realize.

A thought that should have been grim to her but gave her the oddest feeling of excitement for what the future could bring.

But that was for thoughts for later. For now, she looked to Kakashi.

"Well, Ichiraku's isn't open twenty-four-seven. Let's go."

"Right after you," he agreed.

* * *

**Six Waves - End**


	27. Seven Skipping Stones

**Seven Skipping Stones**

* * *

"Two out of three kids ain't bad," Kakashi noted, looking as if he were about to pat himself on the back for a good job. His pretty girlfriend slapped him on the arm, casting a glance towards Hinata before changing the subject by asking how Naruto was enjoying his ramen.

He was enjoying it, of course. He looked so happy.

Hinata sighed dejectedly, but covered it up by taking her time slurping up her noodles.

Normally, just looking at Naruto could cheer her up in an instant. He was her sunshine on rainy days, someone who always shone through even on the days where the sky was filled with clouds. Hinata had once been able to rely on that.

But it was different now. Even looking at him wasn't able to make her any happier. Instead, he served as a reminder of another one of her failures. Of being the only one on her team not to get to the next round.

Hinata was mixed up in her emotions. Truthfully, she was proud of herself. Against her cousin, she had stood up to him and had actually done her absolute best. That was worth something, right? Except, it just hadn't been enough. If she had only been stronger, she could have beat him.

Probably not the Kumo-nin that had eventually gone up against Neji and won, but at least her cousin...

Sasuke kicked her chair, making her yelp.

Hinata turned to look at him, confused.

He lifted a brow at her, as if wondering what  _she_  was bugging him for.

He'd kicked her chair on accident then.

She turned back towards her ramen and went in for another mouthful as she watched the strange cast around her interact. Never before had she been so close to shinobi from other villages—especially not of the Kumo variety.

They seemed to be an especially strange bunch.

Omoi, the shinobi who had beat her brother, noticed her eyes straying towards him and he paused. Nodding at her in acknowledgement, he turned to speak to Karui—the pretty kunoichi had won her match against Choji and the Oto-nin, Dosu. The two of them seemed to be especially close, to be bickering so much with each other.

Yugito jumped in on their conversation but it was too bizarre of one for Hinata to be able to keep up with.

Again, her chair was kicked.

Frowning, she looked back towards Sasuke, who had a familiar look of impatience on his face.

"Sasuke-san?" she inquired, fighting the hesitance in her.

He looked like he wanted to say something.

Seconds passed with them staring at each other, wordlessly.

It was only in realizing how they must look to the others that Hinata broke eye contact with him, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. Her ramen was at least a delicious distraction from the awkwardness that had just occurred.

"You all did really well in your matches," Kakashi said, seemingly at his girlfriend's insistence. Not for the first time, Hinata couldn't help but be struck by how strange it was to see a Kumo-nin act so closely with someone from Konoha. Even stranger to think that the both of them had assuredly been enemies in war at one point in their lives.

She wondered absent-mindedly how it was that they got together and in the same train of thought, she couldn't help looking at Naruto. When daydreaming, it was nice to idealize the future. She wondered if  _she_  would ever get to tell stories about how she fell in love with him, even if just to her children.

Hinata reddened at the thought and reddened even further when she realized Naruto was actually looking back at her.

"Hinata-chan was really cool!" he said, grinning so happily.

To see it made her chest hurt, but it was more an ache than anything else. She wanted to smile at his words but all she could manage was not fainting in her chair as they continued to replay in her head.

"T-thank y-you," she mumbled, having to turn her gaze towards her almost emptied bowl in fear of tipping sideways.

Beside her, Sasuke tutted.

Hinata braced for his criticisms, as they had always come when they were on the training grounds. Admittedly, they were often helpful but it didn't make hearing them any less painful. Especially because it was from  _him_ , the hardest person—second to Naruto—for her to deal with.

He kicked her chair but she refused to look up this time. If he had something to say to her, he would just say it.

Swallowing the last of her noodles, she wondered if he actually hated her and that was why he bothered her so much. Otherwise, why would he glare at her so much? Or hit her so hard in spars, or steal pieces of her homemade bento?

He kicked her chair again, this time with a little bit more force than necessary. It jostled her and she had to hold onto the counter to stay upright. She refused to look at him, even more than before. After all, her fight with Neji had meant something to her. She was different now. Stronger than she had once thought she could be and—

Sasuke lifted a hand to her chin to turn her face towards him.

He wasn't actually looking back at her, glaring at the sky instead of meeting her gaze.

_Why is—?_

"You did better than I expected you to," he finally muttered out. It was so soft and low, she nearly missed it. She blinked at him, thinking that perhaps she had misheard him but as she replayed the sound of his voice in her head, the meaning didn't change.

Hinata felt a blush bloom on her face but she wasn't sure exactly why. Only that, now looking at him in the light of the fading sun, he was much prettier than she had first thought.

"Thank you," she whispered, feeling sweat come off the tip of his fingers. She looked away, unthinkingly leaning into his palm before jolting upright and pursing her lips.

He dropped his hand, coughed, and went back to very quietly eating beside her. All the while making the face as if he was embarrassed of something.

Confused, Hinata picked up her bowl of ramen and drank the broth inside.

It was better than checking to see if anyone was looking at them.

* * *

"You need to teach Sasuke chidori," Yugito said, realizing that quickly her dreams of being able to spend downtime Kakashi was fast becoming impossible. She sighed and added, hand going to her chin in thought, "I need to go back to Kumo with the genin and talk to the Raikage."

Kakashi gave her a look.

"What?"

"What if I went with you?" he asked, out of fucking nowhere.

"Excuse me?" she raised a brow.

He stared at her.

"How?" she prompted him, at a loss for anything else.

"Well, I won't say it's  _my_  idea, per se, but I happen to think it's a great one."

"It's mine," Itachi said, looking up from the book he was reading while they still had some time to relax.

"Okay? But what is it?"

"Basically, I teach Sasuke the chidori," Itachi explained, sitting up and setting his book aside, "I can do it if I disguise myself as Kakashi. We'll be in an out of the way place with no one but us. And Kakashi can pretend to be me."

"But  _why_?" Yugito asked, bewildered by what she was hearing.

"Because I'm an  _awful_  teacher," Kakashi answered with an eye-smile, "you said so yourself."

"And I want some time with my brother," Itachi added, giving her a rare angelic smile.

She squinted at them.

They stared back.

"Okay," she muttered after looking at Itachi one last time. She straightened her back and added in a mumble, "but only 'cause I'm greedy."

Otherwise, if she held better morals, she wouldn't let Kakashi slip out of such important duties. But she couldn't help being selfish just this once. In the end, who knew if she would get another chance like it? Plus, looking at Itachi, she knew it was perhaps even more important for him to spend the time with his brother when he could. Even if it was in the form of a charade.

She looked at him with a raised brow, "do you even know the chidori yourself?"

"I'm a fast learner," he told her before returning back to his book.

"Then, it's settled," Yugito finalized it.

It was seconds later, when she contemplated what she would do with Kakashi in Kumo, that she began to really get into the idea of it. She grinned and turned to Kakashi before reaching for his hands. Yugito held him in place before laughing at the thought of happily giving Kakashi a tour through her most favorite places in Kumo.

"I can show you the bookstore I visit a lot," she said with a hard to refuse smile on her face.

Kakashi looked at her, taking one of his hands to pat her cheek before asking, "what else will you show me?"

"Hm, a great place to eat tekkadon! And maybe I'll cook you something," she answered, encouraged by the way he stroked her cheekbone, "Then we can go to the training grounds I use and finally know which one of us is stronger than the other."

"A continuation of the battle from when we first met?" he chuckled to himself but she grimaced at the thought.

"When you broke my ankle and slammed me into the ground, breaking my nose?" she reminded him, giving him a look of mild annoyance. She could still distantly recall the pain and the haze of panic she had been in at the time. And how many weird things she had said to him.

"Hm, I was just trying to catch me a wife," he joked and though the sudden mention of the word made her heart skip a beat, Yugito didn't let that deter her from laughing at him.

"Your methods are awful," she scolded him.

"We'll see, we'll see," he waved her concerns aside, "you can tell me if they work in the future, of course."

She felt her face flush but rather than acting shy, she just mumbled, "you're getting ahead of yourself, stupid."

Itachi coughed in the background.

"Don't worry, Itachi, I'll ask you first for her hand before I ask her."

At that Yugito scoffed indignantly before breaking down into soft laughter at the idea of Kakashi prostrating himself to Itachi like he was her father. She punched him in the arm for his joking but in the midst of her laughter, she couldn't quite do it as hard as he probably deserved.

Sliding down his mask, and as her laughter slowly faded, he leaned in to give her a quick kiss. Her life had officially become a dream. Something so sweet could never fit itself into  _her_  reality after all.

He was smiling when he pulled away, but looked almost as if the kiss had hurt him as much as it had hurt her. She felt like a child playing with fire for the first time. Any second now she would drop sparks onto her shirt and ruin it forever.

The sound of Itachi shutting his book made her jump.

"That's my cue to leave," he said casually, dismissing himself as he got up to leave her room.

Yugito watched him go and by the time the back of his head disappeared from her sight, she was feeling more than a little nervous.

_Is this it?_

Was it time?

Yugito turned to look at Kakashi and in that same moment, his mouth was already on hers. She didn't even have time to breath as his hands moved to hike up the edge of her qipao. Fingers caressing the skin of her inner thigh, she was surprised by the sudden ignition of warmth where once there had been nothing.

She moaned, soft and begging as the two of them backed up towards the bed. He laid her on it, hands still venturing beneath her skirt and sending wave after wave of heat through her body.

Their kiss broke and she struggled to catch her breath, her lungs feeling tight in her chest.

"There's—a zip," she fought to say, and without further prompting, he used a hand to flip her onto her front. She couldn't see him anymore but she could sure as hell feel what he was doing. The sound of her dress being unzipped filled the room, mixing with their soft panting and soon the moan she had to let out when he began to run his fingers down her spine.

" _Beautiful_ ," he whispered and she took in a shuddering breath as he worked on sliding off her dress. He helped free her arms, bunched the fabric and rolled it down her body, tugging it over her hips and down her thighs. She couldn't breathe.

His hands went to her ass, pulling at the edges of her panties and letting it snap back. She yelped at the sensation, surprised before looking over her shoulder, face red, "what are you doing?"

He said nothing—only smiled as he linked down to kiss her shoulder blade. His flak jacket was rough against her skin, making her shiver as it brushed over her. His hot breath misting over her only served to make matters worse as she found herself writhing beneath him.

Kakashi trailed kissed down her back, hands on her hips keeping her as still as he could manage. In the silence of the room, with only the sound of his lips on her skin and the breaths she found herself releasing. Yugito pressed her face into her hands, attempting to stay still beneath him but as he got to the small of her back, it turned impossible to.

Especially as one of his hands migrated towards her underwear before his fingers snuck their way underneath. She moaned, eyes widening when he  _touched_  her. The more he did it, the more breaths she had to release and in shorter spurts they came.

"I've never felt this before," she whispered, uncomprehending when Kakashi took the chance to flip her back over. His hand was still there as he made the change, making her utterly lost to anything else happening. Too consumed in the feeling, it was a surprise for her the moment she looked beyond the cracks of her hands on her face to see his face.

If she hadn't already, she would have lost her breath.

He looked down at her, a smirk on his face that only furthered the twisting of her insides.

"You're going to take this slow, aren't you?" she asked, unsure if she was more or less afraid of that happening. She didn't know if she could survive any of his answers.

At the question, his smile broadened before he leaned forward to kiss her on the lips. His tongue was inside her mouth the moment she opened up for air and though she worried in the back of her head that she was doing it wrong, the feeling was too good to pass up.

His hands continued to touch her as he tugged down her underwear back her hips as it bunched at her thighs. Yugito fully expected it to feel weird and strange, these things she had never allowed herself to do before with another person.

It was terrifying in some ways for her, having to trust another person with her body in a way she had never given it before. But it was less that, now that she was experiencing it. Now, with Kakashi gazing down at her and touching her so gently, she had the thought that she never wanted it to end.

And, of course, that's when it did.

A knock came at the door, making Kakashi break the kiss and pause.

" _Shit_ ," she muttered before clearing her voice to call out, "who is it?"

"Um, it's me—I mean, it's Fusasaki," the intruder called back.

Yugito's sigh came in unison with Kakashi's as they met each other's gaze.

"Later," she promised, sitting up and sliding out from underneath him, snapping her underwear back into place. Locating her qipao and quickly shimmying back into it, Yugito padded to the door and opened it with a very fake smile on her face. "What is it?" she asked, hoping the answer was a good one.

Fusasaki brightened when seeing her and seemed entirely too unaware of what she had just interrupted, "Gai and I were wondering if the both of you would like to go out for drinks tonight!"

Yugito couldn't hold back her sigh before looking back towards Kakashi, who raised a brow.

"It would give us the chance to fill him in on everything," he pointed out, "we might not have the chance if we're leaving tomorrow."

_Shit_.

She cast one last longing look at the bed before finally relenting with one last sigh, "we'll go."

Yugito would soon come to regret that choice.

* * *

Sumiye woke up in pain but at least she woke up.

She struggled to sit up, everything in her body protesting it against it like she had something heavy hovering over her. She winced, gritting her teeth and able to move just enough to peer at the IV drip in her arm and the clock on the wall.

It was mid-afternoon and no one was in the room with her. The sunlight filtered in through the light curtains, baking her beneath it underneath the blankets that covered her entire body like padding in a casket.

She wondered how she would be able to call for help-unable to even force any sound through her throat. Sumiye realized she must have been screaming when she'd blacked out, otherwise it couldn't hurt  _that_  much.

At least it didn't feel as though the seal was acting up anymore. She could at least be thankful for that.

The door to the room she was in slid open and in the doorway was a man she had come to hate in recent years-The Hokage.

"How are you feeling, Sumiye-chan?" he asked and she felt disgusted by the way he called her.

The man whose actions had lead to her father's death-Sumiye ground her teeth and tried not to glare through the eyes that were hard enough to keep open. She felt delirious or something similar to that effect. Something that made her not as sharp and not as deceitful.

" _Fine_ ," she rasped out, though the word became twisted and unrecognizable to even her own ears.

He stared down at her on the bed, and she watched him through dry eyes as he slowly made his way to the table in the room. A pitcher of water sat on it, chilled by the looks of condensation on its side and she swallowed at the sight. That evil man picked it up, poured a glass, and turned to her with a smile full of warmth on his face.

That smile terrified her.

Sumiye shrank back, ignoring the pain that shot up and down her body. She nearly squeezed her eyes shut in fear but somehow managed to maintain eye contact. He lifted the cup to her lips, and as the cool water wet them, she drank greedily even as her eyes never left his.

If he had wanted her dead for withholding the truth about what she'd experienced in the Forest of Death, then he would have already killed her. So, either he was keeping her alive for more information about Orochimaru, or he didn't plan to kill her at all.

She could didn't trust him with the later option. He was an evil man and evil men did evil things.

He pulled the cup away from her, and though she wanted to scream in frustration, she held back.

"There is someone who wants to see you," he told her, and lifted a brow at her as if they had already become old friends. "Are you able to talk a bit better now?"

" _Maybe_ ," she whispered, unable to give a conclusive answer.

She was too terrified to outright deny him but still too angry to give full obedience.

Sumiye stiffened as the sting of the curse seal in her neck returned. Despite the pain she was already in, it somehow found it easy to stand out amongst everything else. She winced and with arms that felt dead at her side, she struggled to even move the tips her fingers. Nothing seemed responsive.

That was the first indication of how badly she had gotten hurt.

With wide-panicked eyes, she looked at the back of the Hokage as he went to open the door to let in the shadow behind it. Her arms were useless and here she was about to-.

Fugaku stepped into the room, his eyes landing on her and meeting her gaze.

Sumiye let out a strangled sound, hit by the confusion of seeing him there in the same presence as the Hokage. To her, they were as different as light and day to each other. One, that she had come to loathe and pray for the death of, and the other a man who had always supported her mother and her life.

A god and a demon in the same room.

"I'm glad to see you're awake, Sumi," he said, stepping closer to the bed. She wanted to reach out for him, somehow touch him to make sure he was real.

"Are my arms-?" she choked on the words and couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. Tears filled her eyes and amidst the physical pain, there was fear and anguish steadily building within her.

"They're broken now but they will recover, there's no need to worry," he told her, a faint trace of a smile on his face. More so than that smile of an evil man, this one was so much kinder. She found her lips twitching upwards despite everything.

"How long?" she dared to ask, her brows creasing.

"A few months, and then you'll have to attend a few more months on physical therapy," he explained, making her frown. Then, he ruffled her hair, surprising her more than discovering her arms couldn't work. She had never known him to do that to just anyone. The last time she'd witnessed it had been when she'd last seen Itachi.

Sumiye put a halt to her thoughts there. She didn't want to waste seconds of her life thinking about a vile traitor, even if he was the clan head's son.

"I won't become a chuunin for a while then," she mumbled, wilting. At age fourteen, she knew she'd already missed her chance to appear especially impressive with her promotions, but now it would be even worse. She'd look like some sort of dead last on paper.

"What matters now is your recovery," he reminded her, adding, "you shouldn't be worrying your mother so much."

"I know," she muttered, and sighed at the thought of meeting her mother like this. She could only imagine the tears on her face and then having to withstand hours of endless berating afterwards.

"Now, would you be able to tell me about how you got that seal on your neck?" Fugaku asked and she pursed her lips at the reminder.

Glancing at the Hokage watching them, she frowned but with the clan head nodding her on, she felt caught between two opposing forces.

Half-truth then. The rest of it, she would tell when they were alone.

Sucking in a calming breath and wetting her lips, she answered, "Orochimaru attacked me when I was setting traps for food. I had been a distance away from my teammates and no one could have helped me at the time. He left after giving it to me and I...didn't know who to tell."

"Things have been hard for you, haven't they?" he noted, looking as if he were feeling something of the pain she was in.

Tears filled her eyes, but Sumiye didn't let them fall. Instead, she looked at the sight of his warping face and smiled, "I've only been able to do my best because of the clan."

She couldn't see his expression but his hand went to her cheek, wiping away tears that had strayed without her permission. With her hands useless at her side, she couldn't hide but if it was him. Her mother would scold her if she knew, for showing such a disgraceful sight to such a great man.

Sumiye leaned her face into his palm and whispered softly, feeling weak and small. She didn't look at him, too afraid of seeing someone else in him and the pain that would ruin her. But the thought broke through the haze, undeterred by her reluctance.

"Thank you," she whispered, sobbing.

She simply could not hold it back, not after the thought had come and passed.

_I wish he were my father_.

"I'm sorry," her voice shook dangerously and though she wasn't talking to the clan head anymore, he didn't seem to mind it. At least, he didn't pull away.

Later on, when she had a clearer head-if she could even  _remember_  it-she was sure to regret her actions. But for now, she found herself falling asleep with his hand carding through her hair.

Tomorrow, she would tell him.

Tell him that the Akatsuki were coming.

* * *

Sasuke knew the second he came to get him that his teacher was actually his brother.

But, in gazing up at him, he decided not to reveal that he knew even if it casted a little doubt in him the truth of his observation. Really, the only thing convincing him that it was his brother at all was the strange looks he was getting.

Sasuke had never known to look at him so...warmly.

At the thought, Sasuke fought off a smile as the two of them made their way through Konoha. They were headed to some place even he didn't know but it had to be out of the way and prime for training. If it was his brother though, anywhere he took him would be the best place.

He even made sure to memorize how to get there and back-a place that could prove useful for him if he ever wanted to train in private.

They ended up going into the mountains, out of the way from trails and farther east from the Hokage Rock. All in all, it was easy to get there if one knew where to look. Otherwise, the spot they set up camp was out of the way from civilization and uncultivated. Ran amuck, trees and fauna piled up and made it difficult to see anything but plantlife.

It almost reminded him of when he was younger, when Itachi would bring him out to camp in the backyard for special occasions like his birthday. He could remember laying under the stars and listening to his brother breathe beside him, glad to have him if only for a few more hours. Then the dawn would break and the experience would end.

If it really  _was_  Kakashi-and his teacher had begun to give him questionable looks-then it would be sort of silly to think of his brother. But he couldn't help it as the two of them set up their tents and gathered their supplies.

Even his mannerisms, Sasuke could remember them.

Itachi went to brush his hair back and it was in that moment he knew for certain.

"Is it..." Sasuke started, but trailed off when he realized that it might be a stupid question.

"What?" Itachi stared at him and it was no expression Sasuke had ever seen on his teacher's face. All concern. For that matter, it wasn't the sort of face he could recall his brother using either.

He swallowed but very quietly answered, "nothing."

Could he even ask him to reveal his face? Would Itachi go away if he did?

He couldn't risk it.

Still, Itachi had to let go of the henge eventually anyway. He just had to be patient to catch him at it and then once that was out of the way, they could finally talk. Or rather, Sasuke could finally berate him endlessly with questions that had only been piling higher since the start of the exams.

The latest one was what he was even doing there, taking the place of Kakashi.

Not that he minded it, of course. His teacher had never been the most hands on in his approach to teaching and that had never bothered Sasuke before. Instead, he was glad for the opportunity with his brother.

He'd waited years for something like this and now he had a whole month.

An entire thirty days to ask him anything he wanted.

"There's still light in the day, how about we begin?" Itachi asked and Sasuke jumped at the sound of him speaking.

"I learned from someone recently that the more time you spend on something, the better you'll be at it," Sasuke said, mildly irritated that Naruto was beginning to invade his thoughts. He met his brother's gaze, "I want-I need to be strong. I want to win."

"Excellent," Itachi replied and Sasuke was sure there was a smile beneath his mask, "then let's not waste any time."

_Ah_ , Sasuke blinked at him and felt almost nostalgic staring at him. For how much he'd always asked to train with him, all the pestering and pleas, it was finally happening.

He couldn't be any happier.

* * *

**Seven Skipping Stones - End**

 


	28. Eight Tempers High

**Eight Tempers High**

* * *

As if being moved to the public hospital couldn't make matters any worse than they were,  _he_ had to show up.

Naruto Uzumaki.

She held back a groan in lieu of asking, "What are  _you_  doing here?"

He blinked at her, something different to the wide-opened mouth staring from earlier. It was better than him turning pale at the sight of her bandaged face. Kid came in without so much of a word and stared, then he had the balls to look surprised when she called him out for it.

She lost to him. On paper.

"I'm sorry," he said, and scratched at his cheek. Weird lines were in them, reminding her of the rumor that he was the jinchuuriki of the village. She knew there had to be one, even if it turned out to be a moron.

"Sorry for what?"

He gave a wry chuckle, but he looked away. At a loss for words. There were bags under his eyes and she wondered why. In the match, he seemed like someone hell bent on always bouncing back when he needed to.

"You look tired," she said, allowing him a change of topic.

At it, he winced. "Yeah. I, uh, I haven't been sleeping well."

Sumiye looked at him and then looked to the ceiling that she had been subjected to staring blankly at. Her lack of mobility in her arms limited her potential routes to ease off boredom and as she'd been sunk into self-loathing far enough to entertain herself for the day, she figured she'd give him a chance.

"Do you wanna talk about it or something?"

He sucked in a breath, stared at her with wide, pleading eyes.

"I'm sorry, dattebayo!" He lifted his hands in prayer and bowed his head.

She blinked.  _This again?_

"I'm sorry," he repeated, looking up. "I feel like it's my fault you became like that and I, I just stood there and watched. I didn't do anything even if I could have."

"You would have gotten yourself killed. It's not your fault," she said. He was such a damn weirdo, coming to apologize for something he had nothing to do with. It would have been a bit cocky of him if he didn't seem so miserable about it.

"But you...you, I could have done  _something._ I should have stopped you from hurting yourself, 'ttebayo. Then you wouldn't be here and your face wouldn't be covered up."

"That's ludicrous. What could you have done? Besides, it was better me being hurt than anyone else. I don't want mauling a kid to death on my record before I even reach chuunin."

He snorted, like it was a joke. She stared at him.

"Seriously, what could you have done?"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't know, 'ttebayo. I wanted to try talking to you but I... I didn't know your name."

"Sumiye Uchiha. A cousin to your teammate."

His cheeks reddened. "I know that  _now_."

"Talking is useless in a fight," she muttered.

Naruto cocked his head, confused. "Then how do you know who you're fighting against?"

"Why do you even want to know? I'd rather not feel like shit afterwards, personal preference."

He shrugged. "Guess it just feels wrong not to know."

She scoffed. "What? Are you going to memorize everyone's name or something? Never forget a name and become a fighting legend?"

"Is that possible?" Naruto asked, grinning, and there was a jolt of life in him that reminded her of who he had been in the prelims. Irritating and hard to get down.

"I don't know."

"Oh." He deflated.

Silence followed.

She sighed.

"Hey," he started, and his face turned red even to his ears. "Did the doctors say anything about your face scarring?"

What.

"Why?"

"Because you're pretty, dattebayo!"

"I'm not pretty." It was the truth. She knew that on the inside she was just as ugly as everyone else who had bone, blood, and guts. There wasn't anything pretty about being alive.

"Yeah, you are." Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and twisted his face away on a stubborn note.

"I hope they leave scars," she muttered. Just to spite him.

He turned back and gaped before pausing and tilting his chin toward his chest in thought. "Hmmmm."

She sighed. Boredom was preferable to his company, she decided.

"You might actually look really cool, 'ttebayo!"

Sumiye would have rolled her eyes if she didn't worry about the irritation it would cause to her sensitive eyes.

"Can you go?" she asked. He blinked at her, caught off guard and she felt for a moment like she just kicked a dog. "I mean, it's because I'm a little tired and you look like you could use some too."

"Oh." He scratched his chin but stood up from the chair that faced her hospital bed. "I won't be able to see you 'cause I'll be training with a Pervy Sage, but I'll come see you again soon before you leave this place."

She humored him with a nod and watched him shuffle out of the room, like he still had something to say. He didn't turn back to say it.

* * *

"I told you to drink more water," Kakashi said to her as Yugito groaned with her head in his lap. Even as he scolded her, he continued to card his fingers through her hair while they relaxed beneath a tree for their lunch break. No one was there, the genin students and their teachers having gone ahead.

They both knew the safe haven was temporary but still they settled into it and Kakashi thanked his lucky stars to be able to remain next to her.

"You're the best pillow," she informed him and sighed in contentment as he rubbed at her temple to ease the migraine she was attempting to stave off.

"Glad to be  _the_  best. I could never settle to be second," Kakashi told her, absentminded. It caused her to snort and he grinned. Such a cheesy joke and she still laughed.

"I've never had a hangover this bad," she said, and it interested him to know how her jinchuuriki constitution worked with alcohol or if last night had been a rare side of her. He could still smell the sake on her, and he got flashes of her downing shot after shot to keep up with Gai.

She groaned in his lap.

"Drinking with Gai does that to anyone, you're doing well," he said, a bit glad to be in the position of her caretaker. She had cute ears, attached lobes that curves he traced with his finger. It made her shiver and he watched the heat rise up her face. Though it was supposed to be innocent, he couldn't help but think of other things.

In his head he could still hear her moans from on the bed.

"I just wanna stay here," she mumbled before turning her face in towards his lap.

Kakashi's leg twitched, a reaction he couldn't curb as he tried hard not to think of the implications of her face so close. Instead he thought of how beautiful her hair looked with the filtered sunlight hitting it and making her shine. She shifted to watch him through a dark eye, framed by long lashes and the smirk on her lips sent a jolt through him.

He continued to stroke her hair, and told himself that he wasn't short of breath.

She closed her eyes. "I like when you touch me," she said. It could have been innocent if it wasn't for her  _smile_. She knew what she was doing to him, she knew and she was enjoying it.

Never one to take being teased lying down, Kakashi bent down to lick the lobe of her ear. He heard her gasp but rather than lean back, he took the soft skin in between his teeth and sucked.

Yugito laughed but her breaths were sighs that misted against the hand he'd brought to her chin without realizing. In normal circumstances, he could have held off more—but these were times of high tension, a limbo of unfullment. His groin tightened and furthered hardening when she took his thumb into her mouth. He had to pull back then, watching her half-amazed and half-amused.

It was warm, moist, and the pad of his thumb ran over her teeth as her tongue ran alongside it. It wasn't so amusing anymore.

"This is mean of you," he said, helpless against her. She chuckled against his hand, and with her fingers curling over his skin, she bit him. Gentle, forceful, teasing him with it. Yugito's expression did further to undo him, her eyes closing as she focused on his thumb, sucking and oh—fuck.

She slid it out of her mouth, her lips brushing against his skin before trailing kisses up his wrist and to his elbow. She'd shifted to sit up for a better angle and with a sharp inhale made by him, her hand went to the waistband of his pants.

The next thing he knew in the daze of 'is this actually happening', Yugito was touching him. On her knees, one leg on either side of him, she towered over him. On instinct, he reached for her, held onto her with his hands at her hips and watched her. Her hair fell around her, shrouding her face but with the glimpses of her biting her lip making him harden up all the more. She grinned.

" _Fuck_ ," he barely managed to squeeze past his tightened ribcage.

"More than you touching me, I like touching you," she said, and did just that, using one hand to pull down his pants for better access and the other to stroke him. He thought she would be clumsy in this aspect but no, no she was good— _too_  good.

It didn't prepare him for what she did after she'd hiked down his pants and underwear. Not even long enough to pause, she shuffled backwards, leaned down, and took him into her mouth.

"Yugi—to," Kakashi called, voice weak. "You don't ha—"

He groaned and found his hands in the dirt, ripping up grass and attempting to control himself. It was hard. It was so  _fucking_  hard.

She was aggravatingly slow, gentle as she ran her tongue around the head, circling and making him exercise patience in a way he never had to before. He stared down at her, watched her look up at him and heard her moan. The vibrations ruined him, even with him so far off, he had to be dripping in pre-cum. Her hands were still at the base, stroking and gaining speed the longer she lingered.

He lost sense of time, focused on her—only her.

She kept at it, the minutes ticking by and though it was embarrassing, he could feel it coming close. He could feel the throb and heat licking up his sternum and groin, building and growing, rushing the blood to his head. His breath was ragged, and no expansion of his chest allowed in enough air to live on.

"Hah—ah— _shit._ "

He tried to warn her, to move her away for the last stretch, but she held firm. When the time came, as the buildup reached his limit and he couldn't hold on anymore, as the heat continued to pool and simmer, there it went, rushing through him.

Kakashi could hardly make sense of it as he struggled to catch his breath, hands too covered in dirt to reach for her, and too spent to move an inch. It took a minute of watching her, dazed—as she took a towelette from her bag to wipe off her hands—for him to realize.

"Y-you, you swallowed?"

She gave him a look. "It would have been harder to us to clean up."

Kakashi ran a hand over his face, mask and all, and took a moment to formulate a response.

"Are you  _sure_  you're a virgin?"

"Yes but I'm twenty-six," she told him, rolling her eyes. "By now, I know how to get a guy off."

"But you've never done it before?" Just to be sure, just to be certain.

"Of course not." She paused, expression shifting as her brows furrowed. "Why? Was it bad?"

"It was," unexpected, amazing, sensual, incredible, "good. Very good."

Yugito laughed, tipping her head back. At seeing her throat, he knew he wanted to kiss it, kiss her. He needed her more, so much more now for what she had done. It just  _wasn't enough._

Looking at her, he didn't think it ever would be.

"We'll have to catch up with the others so they don't worry," Yugito huffed and he forced himself to nod. He didn't want to go. He didn't want to disguise himself as Itachi where she had an awkward time looking at him and before that, he wanted to do something for her. Satisfy  _her_.

She stood up and began to pack their things as he pulled up his pants. Together, getting ready to set off again, they sighed.

* * *

Discussions with Ay had a way of becoming the least of she had been expecting. Even when she had come to expect the unexpected, it still somehow managed to be a mixed bag each time she dared cross into his quarters.

She knew from the moment she saw him, however, that he was pissed with her.

"What are you doing back?" he asked.

Yugito paused in the doorway and debated on what to say. She wasn't nervous or scared, it had been too long of them getting along for her to think he'd do anything too bad to her. They might get into an office wrecking fight, but he'd cover her hospital bill. She hoped.

"I have some things to debrief you on," she said. "It was best I came in person."

"And you had to bring your  _boyfriend_  from  _Konoha_  along with?"

Her cheeks flushed at that but she had already suspected the disguise wouldn't fool everyone. She tried for humor to break the tension. "I seem to have a habit of bringing back shinobi from there when I go."

"Is he also going to join our ranks? Can't say I would be against getting Kakashi Hatake onto our side."

Yugito shifted where she stood, pursing her lips and deliberating how best to go about everything. She couldn't outright say he wouldn't leave Konoha—he wouldn't, not for her—not without making Ay question her loyalty to Kumo.

"The Hokage wanted me to speak with you. He wanted to request assistance from Kumo."

Ay sat in his chair and  _stared_.

She opened her mouth and snapped it shut when he crushed the pen in his hand under the wEight Tempers High of a finger. His eye twitched and though his killing intent was leaking, he didn't use it against her.

" _What?_  Why?"

"The Uchiha clan is planning a coup, and they've teamed themselves up with Suna to do it. The date is planned to be a month away from now, on the day of the Chuunin Exams."

"A coup? Similar to what we suspect they had planned years ago?" Ay asked.

Yugito could vaguely recall talk of Kumo taking advantage of the chaos in Konoha, in the case that it received a change of government. But it never happened because of Itachi—because of her.

"Something like that," she said, noncommittal. "I don't know much else beyond that, so I believe we should exercise caution. It's strange they would ask us for help."

"Are you sure they weren't just asking for  _your_  help?" Ay eyeballed her and she laughed.

"Why would they ask me?"

"You seem to get along very well with Konoha shinobi," he muttered. "I'd be suspicious of you if I didn't know you were so passionate about Kumo."

"It's my home," she said. "Konoha could never replace that."

She wasn't lying. Kumo was a lot of things to her, the place of bad memories and of people she'd rather not think of, but it was also where she had finally been able to find peace. Where Yugito felt most needed. She wanted to become Raikage for a reason—she wanted to be a pillar to support the people she had come to love in her time working towards that goal.

"I know," he said, tone gruff. "Hate it, love it, you can't leave it. It's why we kidnap people."

Yugito snorted, not expecting him to be so blunt.

"Raikage-sama, what would you have me do? Should we agree to lend a fraction of support?"

Ay looked at her long and hard. The seconds ticked by and she was sure a few minutes had passed before he let out a big whooping  _guffaw_. He laughed and laughed, clutching his stomach and splintering the desk with his fists before stopping as suddenly as he had started.

He met her gaze.

"The only support that bastard going to get is  _me,_ watching his face as I pulverize his enemies for him. He'll see up close who he went crying for help to, and it'll be  _me_ who he'll be indebted to for the rest of his life! Old man is gonna regret it! Hah!"

The rest of his words became incomprehensible as he split his desk in two, thrashing the papers in the room and cackling as if he had never laughed in his life before.

"Will that be all?" Yugito asked, wanting to miss when he began to throw shit.

"Of course. Send in Shii before you leave to play with your Konoha nin." Ay shooed her off.

Glaring at him through a thin smile, she nodded and left.

* * *

Sasuke knew it was his brother, was so  _certain_ —but still got surprised when he saw his brother lose his henge.

He gulped down the sound of his shock and centered his brother with a disgruntled stare. "You couldn't have warned me?"

"You already knew who I was, little brother. Or was that just you guessing and thinking wishfully? You'll often be disappointed, if that's the case."

"Aniki," Sasuke mumbled. It would have sounded like a whine had he not grown older and wiser since he'd last been face to his brother. Because, sure enough, things  _had changed_. Itachi looked at him with humor in his gaze, an expression that Sasuke couldn't remember seeing even as a young kid.

Itachi was a guarded, careful person. He wasn't the type to smile if it betrayed his true emotions and he wasn't the type that could convey meaning that wasn't convoluted by a puzzle in words.

If Sasuke was being honest, something he struggled to be, the expression on his face was a tad bit disarming. Creepy, even. Sasuke felt like he was looking at a stranger and for all he used to dream of the day, he didn't know what to do now that he stood face to face with his brother.

"It's been a while," Itachi said, eyes softening and darkening with emotion that Sasuke couldn't decode. "I don't have the right to ask but, how is the family? Is mother doing all right? I spoke with father a bit a few days ago. It was... interesting."

Something about this bothered Sasuke—not that their dad had spoken to Itachi, or that he was worried about their mom. He asked about 'the family' though, and he couldn't be too clear as to why but... it made muscles in his shoulders tighten. Maybe it was the guarded attitude he'd seen others in his clan have, maybe it was affecting him more than he thought it would.

Sasuke had been a whole lot younger and much more of an idiot when Itachi left.

For a long time, hadn't Sasuke resented his brother for it? For  _killing people_ —not just any people,  _their_ people. Family. He'd intended to destroy the family. He'd chosen the village over the clan.  _Their_ clan.

For a moment, Sasuke was so startled by this sudden resentment for his brother that all he could do was look at him, dumbfounded.

Itachi just looked sad—and knowing.

"Our mother is fine," Sasuke said, tone a bit strangled. "She still makes too much food, like she's waiting for you." His teeth clicked by the force of his mouth snapping shut. Why had he said that? Did he  _want_  his brother to feel guilty?

Itachi's expression saddened, tightening and making him appear much older. "Is she?"

Sasuke recalled the letter Itachi had gotten Kakashi's girlfriend to courier, of being explained in it that his actions were under false orders. Itachi had never explained from who, or did he? Sasuke struggled to recall more than just the written apology and the 'I love you' that had stuck with him.

He didn't understand why he was suddenly so—so, what was the word? All consuming and as hot as a smoking fire. Just so  _pissed_. Mad.  _Angry_.

Sasuke sucked in a breath, looked away from his brother, and hated that his shoulders shook with his barely contained fury.

He was so confused! How was he supposed to feel? How was he supposed to look his brother in the eye and still see him as family? How could he, when he'd turned his back on it?

_I love you too_ , he had wanted to say back.  _I love you, I love you, I love you but I hate you at the same time._

His brother was a  _traitor_. Everyone said so! Sasuke recalled defending his brother from those that had spoken bad about Itachi, and how always, always, they'd remind him of the people he had killed.  _Good_  people, and some of them were kids.

Izumi had been a kid.

Since when did Sasuke want to defend his brother from that? Why? Because of how he idolized him? How he'd wish each day that things were different and his remarkable and genius of a brother was back in his life?

Was that reason enough to be okay with murder? To just let him off the hook because the orders were a mistake? Itachi still chose—he still  _chose_. And he hadn't chosen him, hadn't chosen their mother, or their father.

_He_  hadn't been there in the aftermath of his brutality; he hadn't listened to their mom weeping when she thought no one could hear, or gotten the pitying stares by Konoha civilians that regarded the Uchiha with an elevated distaste. It wasn't Itachi that had gotten beat up by cousins for defending a criminal, a traitor. And it wasn't Itachi that had to pick up the pieces of a role he never wanted.

It had been Sasuke.

_I love you, I missed you,_  he wanted to say. But he couldn't. Just couldn't.

Sasuke felt  _sick, sick,_ _ **sick**_  just  _looking_  at him.

"The family is diseased," he choked out, and felt something inside him harden. "You infected us with something on that night. Nothing was ever the same."

"No, nothing ever was," Itachi said, voice soft and haunting.

The anger turned to sadness, enough that tears built at his eyes. He dashed them away with a quick flick of his hand.

"But I'm going to save it," he said. Sasuke gritted through his teeth when Itachi looked at him with curiosity, and repeated, with much more conviction, "I'm going to save our family. I will, with the same blood running through you, running through me."

Sasuke didn't know what he expected out of this different Itachi, but when he smiled, it set something at ease inside of him.

"You're becoming a protector," he said.

"I have to," Sasuke returned, and then tilted his chin up. "I'm going to be the head of an entire clan. And, because of that, I have to protect you too, I hope you know."

"Oh?" Itachi looked surprised, amused. "You'll be protecting me? From what?"

In all seriousness, Sasuke said, "Myself after I learn the chidori."

His brother laughed. "Is that an invitation to a spar?"

Another knot in Sasuke eased, but it didn't erase the resentment. The hatred.

"Yeah," he said, "something like that."

* * *

"Kakashi, we have something important we need to do," Yugito informed him seriously as soon as she saw him. He looked out of place in Kumo, now that he could look like himself after their charade had been exposed.

For a moment, she was saddened by how bizarre it was to see him in her village. From the tenseness in his shoulders, he wasn't too comfortable here. But that was to be expected and Yugito hadn't fooled herself into thinking he would ever fit permanently into her life.

Which was why tonight was important.

He blinked at her and then bobbed his head. "What is it?"

"You have something you need to take from me," she said, and then turned, face bright red, towards the direction of her apartment.

She heard a thick swallow behind her, and then Kakashi stepped after, sticking close. People stared. Was it really so strange, her and him?

**Kumo and Konoha have been enemies for a long time. It's as strange as things get.**

What Matatabi said made sense—and left her feeling a bit sick.

Yugito put a bit of distance between them in the streets, and quickened her pace. She made sure not to look at him, even from the corner of her eye. It made her feel awful, ashamed, but it set even further into her head a determination.

They stepped in front of her apartment door and she let them in easily. She waited only long enough for them to take off their shoes before she turned to him, and threw her arms around him. She was surprised, but pleasantly so, to find him waiting expectantly.

"You're mine," she growled, meeting his gaze.

Yet it was a lie even to her own ears. He was Konoha's—she hated expected to be bothered by this. But she was.

Kakashi said nothing, leaning in to kiss her after pulling down the mask. It was that stole her breath from her, left her starved for it, and miserable when he pulled away. He rested his forehead against her, hands coming up to cup her cheeks.

"I'm glad for it," he whispered.

"There's not going to be any interruptions," she said, tone like steel. "I'll kill anyone who tries."

"Good. I'll help."

And then they were kissing, barely able to keep enough control over their limbs to stumble their way through her apartment, repeatedly bumping into things, breaking a vase she'd never cared for—he still apologized—and then finally shouldering their way into her bedroom and onto the bed.

She breathed an exhale of relief.

His lips were still on hers, her moan muffled by the kiss as his hands began to roam. He caressed her, fingers trailing down the side of her waist, over her hip, down to where her dress ended. He hiked it up until his fingers could cup her hip, where his fingers worked on tugging off her underwear.

Yugito shivered at the sensation, and then felt her hips roll when he came to cup her.

"What are—" Her words broke off into a moan, baffled by the reactions he could pull from her. She felt like a puppet almost, and quivered as he stroked her, caught in the flares of heat that worked through her. She'd never been touched so tenderly, with so much care.

She met his gaze, how she was reflected in his gaze.

_Mine_ , she thought, kissing him and groaning the more the pressure built up inside her. She loved running her tongue under his incisors, feeling the pointed edge before caught up in the sensation of his tongue sliding against hers.

The kiss broke off, leaving her weak kneed and helpless. She tried to protest when he began to edge off of her, coming to kneel with his face so close to her sex. She flushed, embarrassed and a bit scared, wanting to hold him back.

"You don't have to," Yugito told him, unable to meet his gaze.

God, what was this intense  _need_  though?

"I have to because I want to," he replied, cutting her off the moment his hands positioned themselves on her hips, holding her still. In the span of a second, he made contact and Yugito yelped, surprised at the flick of his tongue.

"Kaka—shi," she breathed, going boneless in the chaos of what he was doing to her.

She saw, rather than felt her stomach rising and falling, and was surprised by how much force he had to use to keep her still. But she didn't want to push him away anymore, she just wanted to—Yugito placed her legs onto his shoulders and crossed her ankles, giving him better access.

After, she became a ball of contradictions the more the heat mounted inside of her. It was too fast, too slow, too everything she wanted but didn't think she could handle.

"This—this is, what I've been—missing out on?" she gasped out, and groaned when he chuckled, the vibrations of it making her feel wild. Her head rolled, her hands coming up to hide her face.

Yugito needed something now. She needed a release to this pressure that was taking over her, and as she rolled her hips, seeking more, Yugito was amazed to find her nails lengthening.

Her hands went out to grip the blanket they were on, and breathlessly laughed when the sound of something ripping filled the room. It was, unbelievably, the laugh that did her in. She found her release.

Breathless, caught in the ecstasy of his mouth on her sex, Yugito's entire body shuddered, twitching beyond her control. Her eyes rolled and she moaned, nails sinking into the bed, needing to—just needing to tear into something.

Kakashi let go of her hips and rose to hover over her, eyebrow quirked and lips pulled into a smirk. "You like that?"

Still caught in the remnants of pleasure, she gave him a very happy nod.

"But," she said, shrinking her nails and reaching up to tug at his shirt, "it isn't enough."

"No?" His smile deepened.

Hers broadened. "Definitely not. I want so much more."

"I need some specifics," he whispered, a mischievous glint catching his eye. "Shinobi tend to need those."

"Well, for one thing," she began, using one sharpening nail to cut into his shirt down the middle, "this needs to come off."

"Just this?" He shrugged out of his top like it was a jacket, baring his toned arms and chest. For a moment, she didn't say anything, just stared at him, trying to memorize the sight of him. He was so beautiful to her, it almost hurt.

Almost.

"All of it," she murmured, catching his eye, "needs to come off."

"Ah," he breathed, and grinned. "I so do agree."

And he used his hands to rip, shred, and tear into the fabric of her dress. She didn't even feel sad at the loss—Yugito was too caught up in seeing him drink the sight of her in. He tossed the scraps of her clothes away, clearing her skin until she was completely naked for him to see.

"I'm so fucking lucky," he muttered, as if more to himself.

"Stop wasting time," she scolded, a bit embarrassed for him to look at her so closely. She didn't even know where this shyness sprouted from, only that being with him was becoming far more intimate than she'd been first prepared for.

"Are you ready?" he asked, shoving his pants off but leaving his underwear on. He almost looked nervous. Like she was beginning to feel.

Face red, and in lieu of being unable to speak, she nodded.

Was she ready? God, yes.

Impatient, she reached out and tugged him to her, hands reaching out to take the last remaining piece of fabric off of him. She shredded it with her nails, and smiled to herself when she saw a rivulet of blood rise on the side of his hip. Not an intentional cut but a weird part of her liked leaving a mark on him.

He whistled. "Dangerous."

"It's you who's making it easier for someone to interrupt," she told him.

He laughed, and with a force Yugito was quickly becoming entranced by, he grabbed her hips, positioning her just right.

"Quick," she ordered, and found herself lucky enough to be obeyed.

* * *

**Eight Tempers High - End**

 


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